Catch of the Day!
by Tallielle
Summary: B&B have to go undercover as a married couple. Takes place in Season 3 pre-Zach being Gormagon's apprentice. Happy Reading! Please review!
1. Introduction

**CATCH OF THE DAY**

**(a Fanfic by Tallielle)**

**(Note: All characters belong to Fox and Hart Hanson/Kathy Reichs! I just like writing about them.)**

Hello All! This is my first Bones fanfic! I hope you enjoy it!

**Introduction: **

Temperance Brennan sat bolt upright in her bed, hands clutching her blankets, eyes wide. It was 5:30 am, which was definitely earlier than the usual Tempe rising time. Her brain immediately sprung into action and whirred with possibilities as to what had jarred her into full awareness so suddenly.

She rubbed her eyes and surveyed her surroundings, her ears also straining for unusual sounds in her apartment.

All she could hear was the ticking of her hall clock and...nothing...no!

Wait!

There, she heard something, a faint banging that sounded like it was coming from the foyer.

Without bothering to pull on any sweatpants over her underwear, Dr. Brennan grabbed the baseball bat that she kept under her bed and stalked into the hall way.

BANG BANG BANG!

There it was again, and it sounded like knocking? Coming from her front door?

It was then shortly followed by her doorbell, which didn't ring, it buzzed.

Still carrying the baseball bat, she crept slowly to the door.

She raised the bat, unlocked the door, opened it quickly and was ready to swing when she was confronted with...

the smiling face of her partner Seeley Booth.

He was dressed in what looked like an FBI wind breaker and fisherman's cap and held up a greasy white bag and a cardboard tray with two cups of coffee....

and she was...

thoroughly embarrassed.

She was more than disheveled, wearing only a t-shirt and underwear and wielding a baseball bat.

She put the bat down quickly and hid the lower half of her body behind the door frame, peering around it at him, annoyance and curiosity swimming in her eyes.

"Booth. What are you doing at my house at 5:30am?"

She could see that Booth was trying not to laugh. He was smiling broadly and the corners of his mouth kept turning up...the laughter would come at any minute.

Instead, the agent turned around and coughed to mask it.

Very polite Booth, she thought a bit sarcastically.

"I expected a nicer greeting than that," he quipped, "After all, I brought breakfast. AND apparently, someone is an extremely heavy sleeper." He gestured with the bag of donuts to the flashing red light on her answering machine.

Brennan sighed. How was it that a man with what she was sure was at most 75 percent of her I.Q. could make her feel so incredibly stupid sometimes?

"Come in," she said resignedly, "And let me go put some pants on."

He entered before she had the chance to bolt to her room and pinned her with a laughing brown eyed stare.

He gestured with his coffee and smile wryly.

"This is a good look for you Bones." His eyes moved to her flimsy t-shirt and his eyebrows raised, "Air Supply? Oh maaan Bones!"

She looked him up and down, "Like your clothes are any better! And for your information I wear this shirt to bed because it is comfortable. There was a time when I did like the band, but then I realized that the 1980's what one big drawn out fad. So now I wear them to can explain YOUR outfit when I come back after I put on some pants."

With that she turned around and started to stalk towards her room.

"I thought you weren't one for fads, Bones. You know with you basically being a hermit and all during your schooling."

Her mind was still adjusting to being awake. The only come back she could think of really did make much sense but she threw it at him anyway.

"Hermits were typically male monks and originated in the christian eremitic tradition. And thus being so they got very little nourishment. So, the rear you are currently staring at would be much less attractive if it belonged to a person who had once been a hermit."

What!

Tempe nearly hit her head in exasperation at herself as she disappeared into her bedroom. At least she had sounded smart, and she was pretty sure that because of that she had the upper hand in the usual banter for now.

What she didn't know was that Booth now stood in her foyer blushing, with his eyes firmly planted on the floor as if it were the most interesting thing in the world.

Ten minutes later Brennan was dressed in dark wash jeans, a blazer and a shirt.

Booth snorted as she entered the room.

"Good thing I have your crime scene attire in the car, and that it's warm and waterproof."

Brennan looked puzzled as she took the coffee from where he had set it on her kitchen counter.

"Do you want to know the reason we are up this early, and that I am dressed like this?" He made a gesture with his coffee.

"Yes?"

He looked straight at her.

"Fishermen."


	2. Chapter 1: Part 1

Chapter one: part one:

**Bones stood on the dock, looking warily at the crime scene.**

**Booth appeared at her side and tapped her on her shoulder.**

**She startled and looked back at him.**

**"Don't sneak up on me like that Booth."**

**He smiled at her, "I thought no one could sneak up on Dr. Temperance Brennan, double-quadruple black belt master in tae-kwon do! Hwaaa." **

**In mockery, Seeley Booth stood on one foot and positioned both arms in the air, his hands bent at the wrists.**

**"What is that? You look like a pelican stuck in mid-flight!"**

**Booth sighed.**

**"It's the praying mantis. You know, Karate Kid?"**

**She looked at him blankly, "Karate what?"**

**He dismissed her limited knowledge of pop-culture and readjusted himself to his normal posture. He then offered her the black wellingtons he had been holding in his right hand.**

**"I thought you might need these." he said with a small wolfish smile.**

**"Yeah, I'll say."**

**He gaze once returned to the crime scene.**

**"Especially when I have to sift through all that." She pointed to the edge of the dock, specifically to the large trawl net that was now suspended over it.**

**"That must be a nice thing to find in your morning catch." Booth grumble, "Two badly decomposed bodies...mmmm...just what I want with my fish for breakfast."**

**"Yeah, real catch of the day." Bones agreed and then went over to the Captain of the Norma K.**

**The man who she confronted looked to be in his mid-forties. He wore a fisherman's cap, surplus jacket and under that he wore the standard fisherman's rubbers and sea boots. His features were nearly undistinguishable behind his very busy beard.**

**He reached out to shake Tempe's hand before she even introduced herself.**

**"Laurence Bogan, but people call me Cap'n Larry. I smelled something funny in me catch this morning when I brought it up. Something smelled funny beyond the usually funniness o'course." He smiled broadly at her.**

**"When I looked over me trawl I found them!" he pointed to the two rib cages that were visible within the net through the fish, some 5 feet from each other.**

**"That's when I called the police, who called you."**

**Tempe stared hard at the ribs in the bundle of netted fish. Through the glint of still faintly wriggling silver she could make out the faint outline of vertebrae, a skull and what looked like a clavicle and humerus on one skeleton, but the other skeleton seemed to be completely buried in the fish.**

**Tempe did not look forward to climbing into them.**

**"Dr. Temperance Brennan," she said, introducing herself to the man.**

**"That's my partner Agent Seeley Booth, who's over there questioning your crew. We are both happy to help, but I don't think you are going to like some of the things we are going to have to do."**

**'Why's that?"**

**'Well, after I'm done climbing through your catch to do the initial assessment on the bodies in the crime scene environment we are going to need everything in that net," she pointed to the fisherman's whole pull, "Taken back to the Jeffersonian."**

**The man's eyes widened, "Me whole catch?"**

**"Yes. I very sorry sir...we are going to need your whole catch."**

**Boy was Hodgins going to have fun with this one.**


	3. Chapter 1: Part 2

**Chapter 1: part two**

"Hmmmm," Temperance sighed as she moved about knee deep in fish.

Booth kept a safe distance, one hand shielded over an eye, the other pinching his nose.

Bones looked at him and rolled her eyes as if to say, "you wimp" and then went back to digging through the fish.

When she got to the first body she jumped back immediately.

"What?" asked Booth in a nasally voice from below her.

"CRABS!" Bones called back, looking at the skeleton disgusted.

Booth looked puzzled. "The skeleton's got Crabs?" He parroted, clearly confused.

"The sea crustaceans, Booth," Bones replied with a sigh, and they were all over this ones skull, as was a starfish.

Throwing fish aside, she fully uncovered the first skeleton.

She peered at it intensely, "Female, caucasoid, 20-25 years old" her eyes went down to the pubic symphysis. "Was carrying a child pre-mortem."

Booth twitched noticeably.

"And there appear to be small abrasions, scratches and holes randomly all over the skeleton, but that could very well mean that this body had been on land and that it was set upon by predators."

When Brennan uncovered the next body, she went through almost the exact same script, except, "There are two latin phrases etched into this one's humerus. They read Annuit Coeptis and ab uno disce omnes."

Bones was quiet for a moment and then said very softly, "In translation they mean: he has approved the undertakings and from one learn all."

Booth looked at Bones very suddenly, "You said there were markings all over the bones?"

"Yes," Bones replied absently.

"I'm coming up there."

Soon Booth was standing next to her, staring down at the skeletons.

"Bones," he looked at her hard, "These people have been mauled by large dogs."

She shook her head at him, "You suprise me every day Booth. C'mon, let's get these bodies back to the lab."

"Aw, Sweets, did we really have to have a session with you today?" Booth groaned like a five year old from the couch and squinted his eyes at the pyschologist across from him and Bones.

Sweets' eyebrows wet up. "Not your usual defense tactic, I see. Usually you find something about me to pick on, now you have resorted to complaining."

From her seat next to him Bones snorted.

"Answer my question." Sweets crooned.

Bones jabbed Booth in the ribs and gave him a coy smile, "Yeah, answer his question."

"Okay, okay, okay." Booth said, obviously exasperated. "Peer pressure is really a bad thing you, it gets kids in trouble. I was always taught not to give in..."

Sweets tapped his pen against his clipboard, "Just answer it."

Bones looked at Booth expectantly. To tell the truth, the answer to the question that the young pyschologist had just asked was something Bones had always wondered about and she was glad that it had been brought up in therapy...not that she had any burning desire to know or anything, she was just curious.

Booth sighed, it looked like he couldn't divert this any longer.

"Alright", he mumbled quietly, crossing his arms over his chest, "I'll tell you why I apparently try to sabotage every "love interest thing" that Brennan ever has."

"Oooh," Sweets crooned, amused, "Crossed arms and use of her last name instead of your pet name for her. It looks and sounds like we have nudged a nerve."

"Sweets, shut up! The reason why...is...because no guy is good enough for her and" Booth smiled and stretched his arms wide, draping one above Tempe's shoulders, "I'm already taken."

"Oh!" Bones turned to him laughing, "Like I would even entitle you with an answer if you ever asked me! Besides you're sleeping with what-ser-face now...oh that cute attorney on her way to being a judge, Dominique. Somehow she reminds me of Dominique from the Fountainhead...cold, boring, driven by thoughts of power."

Booth looked visibly upset, but he ignored the comment about his current fling and focussed on what was really bothering him. "You mean to say, hypothetically speaking of course, if I were single and asked you out on a date, a real date, you would day no? And," he couldn't help himself, "Dominique and I are _casually_ dating, Bones. No strings attached. But you would really say no?"

Bones checked her watch and smile broadly, "Oh would you look at that. Sessions up! Bye Sweets!"

With that she bounded out of the room, a smile engulfing her face.

"She wouldn't go on a date with me? Seriously? Seriously." Booth was still sitting on the couch in Sweets' office when he heard Bones call for him.

"Booth?!"

He sprung up quickly from the chair and ran out to her side.

"You seriously wouldn't go on date with me if I asked, hypothetically speaking of course?"

"Shhh," she jammed a finger into his mouth and looked around.

"Don't you notice something odd?" she questioned him.

"Um," he smiled, "You got me?"

"Booth...we are seemingly alone her right now. Where is the rest of our usual Jeffersonian team?"

Booth looked incredulously at the platform, "You checked all the offices?"

"Yeah Booth," she nearly whispered, "Everyone is gone."


	4. Chapter 2: Part 1

**Chapter two: part one**

"Oh no," Sweets moaned as he wandered out of his office to join them, "I told them NOT to do this during your session today. I wanted to be involved!" He stamped his foot like a small child as Booth and Bones exchanged identical looks.

Booth inched in closed to Sweets and clapped a large had on his shoulder, "Do what buddy?"

"Ow." Sweets protested, "Don't call me buddy!"

"Sweets," Bones piped up, annoyance tinging her voice, "We have a case, I NEED my staff, if you know where there are please divulge."

"Yes, PUH-LEASE do." Booth echoed, raising his eyebrows at Sweets.

Sweets sighed and his mouth drew into a straight line.

"You guys," he whined, "If I tell you where they are they'll hate me! I can't! It would ruin the whole thing."

"Wow, you really got this twelve year old thing down good, Sweets. And you wonder why every time you get carded the boys in blue take forever to make sure it's not a very well done fake. Anyway, divulge, or whatever Bones said before. They already hate you anyway, so what have you got to loose?"

Sweets looked at Booth and then Brennan.

Brennan looked at him, now clearly annoyed.

"There is a CASE Sweets! You know skeletons with dog bites and latin phrases all over them." She gestured to the steel tables on the platform.

"Oh, okay, okay...they're in the storage room."

Booth and Bones exchanged looks again.

"The storage room what...?"

"Booth, get those dirty thoughts out of your head and let's see whats going on in there."

"What? I didn't say anything."

"But you thought it. Let's go."


	5. chapter 2: Part 2

**Chapter 2: Part two**

"So...what's our plan of action?" Booth whispered to Bones as they both gingerly made their way down the hallway towards the storage room.

"Plan of action?" Sweets piped up from where he was behind him.

Both Booth and Bones rounded on him quickly.

"Stay out of this!" they both barked at the same time.

Sweets made a face. For some reason whenever he was around the two of them together they made him feel like he was their child...like he was inferior. This sentiment should have made him dislike them, but instead he sought their approval more. He was also fascinated by the nature of their relationship. In theory, they shouldn't work...but they did, they worked very well together...in was like they were perfectly in tune with eachother's thought. No, that was wrong...Booth would never fully understand what went on in Bones' head...but he could read her very very well. A lot better than most other people could. It was truly a phenomena, and one he wanted to observe more. He watched them momentarily as they tried to creep down the hall way and then returned to his office.

Bones turned to Booth.

"Plan of action? Booth, it's not like we have to ambush our friends."

"Uh huh..but I think that they might be up to something, and it might concern us...seeing as they called this little staff meeting while we were with Sweets."

Bones looked at him incredulously.

"That's one of the most rational conclusions I think I have ever heard you draw."

"Quiet Bones! I can hear them...let's peek in the door for a better look."

They were both standing outside of the door to the storage room now and Booth got down on his knees and cracked the door, peeking an eye inside.

"Bones, get down here!" he took a hand and pulled her down with him so she could see.

"Booth, I feel like a five year old spying on the neighbor boy...why are we???"

"Shhhh..." he pushed a finger to her mouth.

When they peered in the door they saw Angela in front of a large whiteboard with months written on it?

She was standing in front of Cam, Hodgins and Zack.

Bones noticed Zack looked very uncomfortable in the setting.

He had his arms crossed and his eyes were on the ground.

She was beginning to become really curious as to what they were doing.

"So," Angela said to the gathered assembly, "It has been a year since we started this pool and no one has been right yet. It's time to pick new months and fork over another 50 bucks."

"New months? A pool? 50 dollars?" Bones was highly confused, "Isn't a pool something you swim in, or something you retrieve data from, such as a gene pool?"

"Bones," Booth rolled his eyes in her direction, "It's a pot of money that people put together and then bet on something which has to do with some sort of statistic. A lot of people do it for large sporting events...like the super bowl."

"What?"

"I forgot you only get the History Channel, Discovery Channel and CNN in Bones world. WHAT THE---" that's when he saw the title at the top of the white board. It said "What month do you think Bones and Booth will finally get together in? Winner takes the whole pot."

His gaze shifted over to Bones as he became increasingly uncomfortable.

"Uh Bones, you know what, let's go. I'm really hungry....obviously this isn't a pressing or important issue and your staff will be back in the lab soon so I think we should just leave it." 

He tried to pull her up.

"No Booth! I'm curious as to what they are doing in there." She tried to yank her hand out of his grip but instead ended up pulling him down on top of her. This resulted in a large crash that was probably heard by anyone within a 25 foot radius of them.

"What was that?" came Angela's voice from inside the room.

It was Hodgins that opened the door.

"Can I change my bet, now?"


	6. Chapter 2: Part 3

**Chapter two: part 3**

"And why would you want to do that?" Angela intoned from the inside of the storage room.

Zach turned and blinked at Angela and then pointed to the scene on the ground.

"It seems as if Dr. Hodgins has found the source of the banging."

Angela had to cover her mouth with one of her hands to bite back the laughter.

Bones had thrown up her hands to protect herself from the falling Booth and Booth had fallen in such a way that he lay nearly right on top of Bones.

They'd apparently been so stunned into silence by the awkward fall that neither of them had spoken for seconds.

Bones seemed to snap out of the trance first.

"Booth," she whispered, looking at him and then wriggling under him uncomfortably.

"Uhhh...uh-huh?" he stared back at her blankly.

"Get off me." the statement was blunt, and Brennan released her hold on his shirt at that moment. She wouldn't admit to herself that she was uncomfortable having him that close because she was embarrassed and that she was embarrassed because she found herself physically attracted to her professional partner. The key word being professional. Bones was very good at compartmentalizing things, and this was one thing that she compartmentalized so well that she even had fooled herself into thinking that her relationship with Booth was completely platonic.

"Oh..oh!" Booth shot up, his face beet red and quickly smoothed out his wrinkled suit and then reached down to make sure his belt buckle was fully intact. Today it read, "Save a horse, ride a cowboy."

After making sure he was all put together Booth made sure to offer a hand to help Bones up...and Bones made sure to refuse it.

She turned to Hodgins and looked past him to Angela, "What's this I hear about a bet?" She raised her eyebrows in her best friend's general direction.

"Sweetie...errr...um..you see," Angela started. She'd really been caught now! But maybe now Booth and Brennan would FINALLY realize they had feelings for each other and get over themselves already. Everyone in the Jeffersonian already had a hunch and Angela had always had a feeling that everyone's hunch was right. Booth and Brennan were just blind to the fact that they couldn't live without each other...or simply afraid of the thought. Or both.

Angela sighed, but then gasped in surprise as she heard what next came out of Brennan's mouth.

"I want in."

"Sweetie, could you repeat that?"

"You heard me, I want in." she glanced at Booth and gave him a broad smile, "But in order to do that we'd have to add another time period to the list on the board."

"And what would that be?" this time it was Cam who piped up.

Brennan threw another glance over her shoulder at Booth and let a smile curl like a cat upon her lips, 'When pigs fly."

Hodgins turned to Dr. Addy.

"Zach, it looks like we are going to have to fashion Booth a pair of wings."


	7. Addendum to Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: addendum to part 3**

Dr. Addy turned to Hodgins and sighed. Sometimes he really could not understand so called "normal people." So many things that the majority of the the anglophones said seemed so trivial and unnecessary to Zach.

"First of all, Agent Booth is not a sus scrofa domestica. And secondly, pigs will probably never develop any sort of appendage that will allow them to fly unless the environment somehow changes so that they must make this adaptation."

Dr. Hodgin's looked squarely at Zach, "She meant pigs as in policemen. It was a play on words."

Booth looked at Bones and then back to the assembly in the storage room.

If Bones wanted to play hardball he would throw his hardest.

"If she gets in so do I. And you'll have to add another category for me too." He turned and shot a smile at Bones.

"When the polar ice caps melt."

Satisfied, Booth turned and walked down the hallway, whistling contentedly to himself.

Hodgins chuckled a bit and turned back to Zach.

"He obviously doesn't keep up with his current events."

'Why do you say that Dr. Hodgins?" Zach replied, not knowing exactly what had led his colleague to that conclusion.

"Because if he did, he would know that the polar ice caps are already melting, my friend. All we can do now is sit back and watch."


	8. Chapter 3: Part 1

**Chapter 3: Part 1**

Bones smiled at everyone in the room and shook her head, thinking about Booth's attempt at a comeback. If kept up with his current events he would already know that the polar ice caps were melting little by little, due to global warming. Well, Brennan mentally shrugged, she didn't really think that Booth was the environmentally conscious type anyway, considering the kind of car he drove all the time.

For a moment she had a mental image of the two of them hunched into a mini cooper, a blue light on the dash.

She nearly laughed aloud.

Alright Brennan, she chided herself, back to work, you've got a case to to work for your staff too.

She looked around the storage room at Hodgins, Angela, Zach and Cam who were all standing looking at her...she had been about to say something to them before her mind wandered off in other places.

"Alright everyone, we have a case to solve. Hodgins," she cast a smile in his direction, "I believe you have a large pile of fish to...."

"DAMN IT!" this was from Booth, who sound like he was in the lab.

Cam smiled smally at the sound of her ex-boyfriends voice. A dark arch raised above an intelligent eye.

"He probably just remembered the occurrence of global warming."

"BONES! EVERYONE! GET IN HERE, THE BODIES ARE GONE!"

Bones sharply inhaled.

What?

While they had all been dilly dallying in the storage room someone had snatched the bodies?That didn't compute, not with Sweets being in his office and security being so tight.

Sweets?

No, that was impossible.

They'd had trouble with security before though and Brennan had a hunch about those bones. And if Brennan's hunch was right, then her and her team where dealing with a relatively dangerous operation.

Yes, relatively dangerous indeed.


	9. Chapter 3:Part 2

**Chapter 3: Part 2**

Bones sat in her office, staring into what she estimated was something like her 8th cup of coffee

The team had been awake all night working with the FBI and trying to figure out where exactly the bodies had been taken, who had taken them and…

Brennan sighed....

And where Dr. Sweets was.

When they had all gotten back to the lab that day there had been now sign of Dr. Sweets in his office, or in the Jeffersonian as well. Nothing had been disturbed in his office either or in the lab for that matter.

And Sweets' car was still in the parking lot.

They'd checked the security cameras and hadn't seen anything, no sign of Sweets, no sign of an unknown body snatcher and after approximately 25.2 minutes of film---no sign of the bodies. One moment you could see them clear on the camera and the next you just couldn't...poof...they were gonezo.

Brennan brought a hand to her head in exasperation...something just wasn't adding up, there had to be something she was missing in this whole thing.

There was a slight tickle at the back of her brain...her mind was trying to pull at something that it knew might be relevant to the case, but it wasn't pulling hard enough.

It was just then that a shadow appeared in her doorway.

"Booth!" she looked up from her desk to find a slightly dishelved Booth standing half in her office.

"Um Booth?"

"Bones! Sweets just," he looked distastefully at his phone, "texted me, and it says this...look..." He came and slid her the phone across the desk.

She blinked hard as she saw the words on the screen, "HELP, taking me to TX."

"What? What are we supposed to make of that? How are we supposed to find him?"

Bones looked at Booth with exasperation. This case was starting to give her a headache...this whole day was starting to give her a headache...BOOTH was starting to give her a headache.

Booth threw up his hands, just as annoyed at the situation as Bones was.

"I don't know Bones! Maybe we should have put one of those little trackable chips in him that people put in dogs...that would have made this ten times easier...Bones...seriously, I have no idea. Texas is the size of..well...Texas, so I don't even have a clue about where to start."

"But I do!" Hodgins' voice came through the door.

Bones' head snapped to give him her full attention just how Booth turned around.

Their voices came at him in a jumble...

"Where...how...what?"

Hodgins smiled, "Fish."


	10. Chapter 3: Part 3

**Chapter 3: Part 3**

Booth and Bones were now standing in Hodgins' lab area and were staring at two things...a small fish and what looked like a tiny gold necklace.

Hodgins cleared his throat and looked up at Booth and Bones, letting his gaze slip momentarily to Zach who was watching from the corner of the room.

Hodgins was pleased with himself, yes, very pleased indeed.

"This," he began, "Is Sciaenops ocellatus..." Booth raised his eyebrows at Hodgins, "but," Hodgins continued with a small smile in Booth's direction, "they are more commonly known as the Red Drum. The Red Drum is only found along the Gulf coast in Texas. This was the only red drum I found in the whole batch of fish, and more interestingly, it seems to have been dead upon getting caught because it has already started to decompose. Morever, I found this inside," Hodgins picked up the gold necklace and dangled it in Booth's face.

"Hey that's a Saint's medal...what was it doing inside a fish?"

Bones looked at him, "Oh I don't know Booth, don't you believe in those illogical things called miracles where things like this just happen?"

"Hey Bones! Haven't we already discussed..."

Hodgins cleared his throat and interrupted the would be argument gracefully, "A crew member on the boat had to have planted this treasure filled fish with the catch, which either means that he was the murder and wanted the bodies to be found and the case to be solved...which is highly unlikely because we now have two missing bodies, or he knew something about the case, something he couldn't necessarily tell you."

Booth looked at him, "If he wanted the case solved....?"

Hodgins flashed him a smile, "This medal has an address on the back. It looks like you two are going to have a nice little road trip to Teeeejjjaaas."

Booth and Bones exchanged looks.

"Oh and another thing," Hodgins said almost gleedfully, "All the fish who had consumed any carrion had Rohypnol in their systems."

Brennan's eyebrows nearly shot off her face.

"The date rape drug?"

"Bingo!", Hodgins replied.

Booth smiled and looked at Bones, "I guess it's time to pack our bags for Tejas, pardner." He grabbed the evidence bag containing the Saint's medal that Hodgins had just been holding and slipped it in his pocket. He then hooked his hands through his belt loops on either side of his buckle and stood looking at Bones.

She raised an eyebrow at him, "First of all drop the whole cowboy act...and secondly," she cleared her throat, "I really don't appreciate you calling attention to your so called conversation piece."

"Oh..yeah.." Booth said, a bit embarrassed as he shot a look down at his belt buckle.

She turned on her heel and started to walk out of the lab, Booth followed.

"Can I drive?"

"No."

"You don't let me carry a gun and now you don't let me drive! You sir, are sexist."

"You know that's not true."

"Then let me drive."

Back in the lab Hodgins looked at Zach and gave him a smile that would put a kid in a candy shop to shame.

"King of the lab!" he crooned.

Zach looked at him. "Only because I didn't have any evidence to analyze, remember? Therefore how could I have possibly earned the title of King of the Lab today? So, actually, your win is only by default since there was no competition to begin with."

Hodgins obviously didn't care, "King of the Lab, Zach. The title never loses it's glory no matter how it's procured."

"Hmmph."


	11. Chapter 4: Part 1

**Chapter 4: Part 1**

Booth and Brennan stepped out of the SUV into the blinding sunlight of the Rockport-Fulton area of Texas.

"Wow, it's" Booth started to say before Brennan hastily cut him off.

Brennan raised her eyebrows at him, "Hotter than you expected? Yes, I know." She had told him during the trip there that wearing a full suit probably wasn't the best idea, but he'd snapped back that looking good was part of FBI "protocol." She'd just laughed at him.

"Booth, you should really take off your jacket." she walked behind him and grabbed at it to help him out of it, recoiling quickly when he shrugged her away.

"Bones...what are you...I can take it off myself!" he said disdainfully, shrugging off her light touch and then quickly taking off his jacket and throwing it in the SUV.

The couple looked at the looming gated community in front of them.

"So this is where one of the victim's lived huh? Nice digs," Booth stated, trying to make up for his earlier flare-up of annoyance.

Brennan's eyes shot to the plaque over the front gate.

She took out her cell phone and dialed the Jeffersonian Institute's number.

"Dr. Addy speaking."

"Yes, Zach....it's Dr. Brennan. What can you tell me about Cumberfield Gardens, the gated community in the Rockport-Fulton area of Texas?"

The next words that Zach said made her stomach plummet into her shoes.

She closed her phone and shot a sideways look at Booth.

"Wow Bones, that's a look I have never seen on your face before. Why ARE you looking at me like that?"

Brennan sighed and then took a deep breath to steel herself for what she had to say next.

"We have to go undercover Booth, and you are not going to like it!"

Booth chuckled a little bit and rolled his eyes, "I always like going undercover Bones. It's so much fun for me! What could possibly ruin..."

Bones cut him off quickly, this was going to be a difficult case to do undercover, she could already feel the anxiety and tension invading her body.

"Because, Booth, Cumberfield Gardens is a gated community that only accepts married couples between the ages of 24 and 32." She fixed her steady gaze on his face to gage his reaction.

He remained chipper, "Why would that..." his face fell quickly, and she watched him digest the information she had just thrown at him, "We have to pretend to be married?" he said weakly.

"Obviously." was her one word answer. She was doing her best to keep calm but internally she was panicking. Would they have to share a bed, how does one "act" married anyway? And the thought that made her the most anxious of all, would they have to kiss? Of course not...no...there would be no need...

She didn't realize that Booth was looking at her with a broad smile on his face.

"Bones," he said as he draped an arm over her shoulder, "This should be no problem for us, because we act like a married couple anyway...minus the sappy lovey dovey parts."

"And the sexy parts" she interjected a little too quickly.

He rolled his eyes again, chuckling a bit nervously, "Yes...the sexy parts too...can't forget those. But...in a way, we do sort of already act like a married couple. We have the same dynamic because we are together all the time...you in a sense are my workspouse."

Brennan blinked. Workspouse. She sort of liked that...despite that it contained the word spouse in it.

"So you are proposing we just act as we normally do and the people in there won't be able to tell the difference?"

He grinned, "Exactly. No we just have to make up fake names...and maybe get some different clothes..there has to be a thrift shop around here somewhere, right?"

"A thrift shop?" she raised her eyebrows at him.

"Yeah...it'll be fun. We can make you look like a 1950's housewife." he grinned, knowing how much the comment would bother her, "I'm just kidding Bones...we can ...uh...practice being married there. Okay?"

"Okay." Bones answered, climbing back into the SUV.

Did they really already act like they were married?

Brennan simultaneously hated and loved the thought at the same time. She hated it because she completely disagreed with the institution of marriage but she loved it because...she let her gaze slip over to Booth for a split second...no!

Brennan!, she scolded herself, your relationship with Booth is strictly professional.

Still, she had a feeling that this case could be fun. Emphasis on the word could.

It could also be a disaster.

Well, she thought, I guess it's off to the thrift shop for phase one of the investigation.

Wardrobe readjustment.

How does one "act" married again?

Her brain was going in circles, all thrown into a spin just by the suggestion that she had to pretend to be Booth's other half.

But he'd sort of said she was his other half already, at least at work? Hadn't he?

Unconsciously she reached for the hand Booth had been resting on the middle console.

"Bones," he'd said softly, "What are you doing?"

"Practicing being married. Isn't this what married couples do? Apparently human touch somehow signifies some sort of deeper affection for the person the touch is bestowed upon. It's sort of like saying I like you better than everyone else."

"Oh.." Booth shrugged, a feeling he couldn't describe welling in his chest, "Yeah, I guess that's true."

He gave her hand a small squeeze.

He did like her best, but he was too scared to admit it.

"What was that for?" she said, clearly startled at the squeeze.

He shot his charm smile at her full blast.

"Practicing being married."

"Oh."


	12. Chapter 4: Part 2

**Chapter 4: Part 2**

Sweets took in his surroundings one more time to make sure that his text message to Booth could accurately describe them.

It looked like he was in a basement of some sort, but the basement was fairly finished and had a homey looking bed in one corner with an end table complete with an oil lamp next to it.

Some odd people had been to see him before.

He had no idea what kind of trouble he was caught in, but he knew it had to do with something weird...and religious.

He had a slight suspicion that he was being held captive by some sort of cult, but he was not one hundred percent sure and he wanted to make sure that any information he fed Booth was at least 95 percent accurate.

The people who had talked to him before had been women and they had been mentioning something about how he would make a great addition to the community as soon as they could find him a partner, but that they had to talk to someone named Chandler first.

Sweets had gotten the feeling that this Chandler person was some sort of charismatic leader and that he had somehow brainwashed the entirety of this "community" to follow his practiced..aka..he was the leader of the cult. The two women also mentioned something called the "community council", which apparently was some sort of governing body which made a lot of decisions for the so called community in which he was stuck.

He crammed all this information over the span of 4 text messages to Booth and had just pressed send on the last one when one of the women who had visited him previously entered the room through what looked like a trap door.

She gave him a smile as he froze and looked at her, cell phone still in hand.

He couldn't help but feel his gut tighten at the sight of the hammer in her hand.

"Is that for me?"

"No, of course not honey," she replied in a thick texan accent, "That's fer your cell phone."

With that she snatched the gadget out of Sweets' hand , threw it on the bedside table and smashed it into bits with the hammer.

She gave him that same sweet smile that she had used when she entered.

"Only Chandler and the community council are allowed to have those honey, so I'm terribly sorry but I had to dispose of it. I'll go and get the dinner we made you in a second."

The strange woman then swept the cell phone pieces off the table and into a small garbage can with one hand and turned around and exited the same way she had come in.

Sweets walked over to the bed and threw himself on it.

He didn't even know if his last text message to Booth had gotten to send before the woman mangled his phone.

He was beginning to feel nauseous.

He didn't like this...he didn't like it one bit.

ESPECIALLY if he was dealing with a cult like organization.

From a psychological point of view cults were not usually violent...but when they became as well developed and intricate as he had an inkling that this one was...(if they were even dealing with a cult of course) then their potential for violence became extremely high.

Where were Booth and Bones?

Weren't they coming to find him?


	13. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

**Booth and Bones had found a thrift shop.**

**And Booth had instructed Bones to dress the part of a southern belle house wife. He had added quickly "And not the antebellum type."**

**So she was doing as she instructed and fiddling with the zipper of what she thought was a **_**very**_** girly dress in one of the dressing rooms.**

**Booth's voice came from outside, "Do all women need to take a decade in the dressing room?"**

**"If a decade has suddenly been reduced to ten minutes, then yes. Women actually care how they look before they go out into the world." Bones had let Booth pick out his own outfit and she sincerely wondered how he'd done with himself. She threw one last look back at the mirror, shrugged and stepped out of the dressing room.**

**"BONES!" Booth practically threw himself in front of her, "What are you doing? You don't seriously want to go out in that? Please...put some clothes on!" **

**"I do have clothes on."**

**"But but that dress....it's way too....short, and tight and low cut...it's just...not what I had in mind." He was practically shoving her back into the dressing room at this point.**

**"Oh," she shot back at him, "Like you did any better with your outfit?! You look exactly the same as you do everyday."**

**"No I don't...I..."**

**Bones cut him off by tugging a bit on his shirt, "Dress shirt," she tugged on his tie, "tie" she moved down to tug on his pants...**

**"Hey!" he protested, trying to keep himself from chuckling.**

**"Dress pants..." she grabbed his belt buckle.**

**"BONES!"**

**"Oversized belt buckle with the coat of arms of the United States on it...which was a very good find by the way...and," she straightened herself back up, "dress shoes. The only thing you are missing is the suit jacket."**

**"Fine!" he conceded, he guessed Bones was right. He couldn't help it though...he was a man of habit and very set in the way of fashion. He scratched the back of his head with a hand.**

**She sighed, "How about we just pick out each other's outfits and call it fair."**

**"Under one condition..."**

**"What?!" **

**"I get to keep the belt buckle."**

**"Fine."**

**After ten minutes of running around the thrift store an putting together outfits for each other Bones and Booth stood next to one another outside the dressing rooms.**

**Booth looked down at himself in a particularly satisfied manner. Bones had done a good job.**

**"I had no idea that you had any kind of fashion sense, but apparently you do!"**

**Booth was dressed in a worn out pair of levis, a white dress shirt and a dark brown leather bomber jacket. Black cowboy hat and boots completed the ensemble, as well as the belt he had picked out.**

**"Ditto," Brennan shot at him, "Though I would have preferred to be wearing pants."**

**She was in a sleek and simple Jackie O style black dress, completed by a particularly flamboyant pair of red heels. She looked at Booth and he slowly rotated in a circle, showing her the full extent of her handiwork. God, she'd never seen Booth in tight jeans before...his butt looked so...she stopped herself. Professional thoughts Brennan. PROFESSIONAL.**

**"This outfit only needs one more thing." Booth said, grinning at her.**

**She raised her eyebrows at him, "And what's that?"**

**"THESE!" Booth whipped out a pair of aviators that he had stashed in the front pocket of the bomber and turned to her with a cheshire cat grin on his face. "Now I am really one bad a--"**

**She rolled her eyes at him, "You are having way too much fun with this. Let's pay for this stuff and get out of here."**

**He peered down at her. Two tiny Temperances stared back at her from his mirrored lenses.**

**"We need these."**

**He reached in the same front pocket he had stashed the glasses in a pulled out three rings.**

**"An engagement ring and a his and hers wedding band." Brennan stated flatly. She had been hoping that they wouldn't go so far as to wear wedding rings to pull off the disguise. Booth knew how she felt about the institution of marriage.**

**"Yeah...I know how you feel about the whole thing, but we have to make it believable so..."he quickly picked up Brennan's left hand and slipped both rings on.**

**"There ya go."**

**"Yeah.." she said softly, staring hard at the rings on her left hand. She stared at them for a solid 5 seconds before her eyebrows knit in confusion.**

**She went to turn to Booth but he was already walking toward the counter to pay.**

**"Booth?"**

**"Uh-huh."**

**"How did you know my ring size?"**

**"Oh...remember I went with you to get that ring that your dad gave you resized for you?"**

**"That's right!" she snapped out of whatever reverie she had been stuck in an bounced up to join him. He had paid for her things as well and went to open the door for her, she quickly grabbed at it an opened it for herself.**

**"Now we get to think up names. I think we should call you Edward."**

**Booth snorted. Edward? "Bones, Edward possibly is one of the most uncool names I have ever heard. If I have to be Edward then you have to be Doris."**

**Brennan looked at him, "Fine than my name gets to be Isadora...after the great..."**

**He cut her off, "Can I call you Izzie?"**

**She grinned at him, "Only if you agree to be Edward."**

**He threw up his hands, "I can't win with you can I?"**

**"Nope."**

**"Will you at least call me Ed?"**

**"I'll call you Eddy. Izzie and Eddy yech...that sounds cutsie enough for me." Bones commented as Booth herded her into the SUV.**

**She turned to him when she was snugly secured in her seat, "You know Eddy, you sort of look like Boss Godfrey from Cool Hand Luke."**

**He turned to look at her, his mouth slightly agape, "Another pop culture reference, Bones? Maybe that rock you were under was a little smaller than I originally thought."**

**"I fit some time in to relax when I went to school...maybe twice." Bones shot back at him, "And it's Izzie, remember? Not Bones."**

**"Izzie, right. Well, I supposed we should pull over for some coffee and make up a story."**

**"I suppose so."**

**Booth turned the key in the ignition and started the car, then revved the engine.**

**He looked at Bones and tipped his cowboy hat to her.**

**"Let's ride!"**

**With that, they were off in a cloud of dust.**


	14. Chapter 6: Part 1

**Chapter 6:Part 1**

Brennan peered at Booth over a mug of steaming java. They had stopped in a small roadside diner with a decidedly country flavor. The diner was actually housed in a trailer and everything inside looked as if it was straight out of the 1950's. Their waitress had led them straight to a red and white pleather booth with a window facing the grassland beyond the diner.

Temperance tried to meet Booth's gaze.

He still had those damn aviators on, and they shielded his eyes.

This made her slightly uncomfortable because she was finding she couldn't read him as well when he had them on. She hadn't realized how important eye contact had become in their partnership until that moment.

"Booth," she grabbed for the glasses and he moved away from her, laughing, "I can't take you seriously when you are wearing those things, take them off!" She waved her hand wildly around his face as he kept dodging her grasp.

He stopped and turned the lenses of the aviators toward her.

"I'm Eddy, remember. And why do can't you take me seriously in these things? They're a law enforcement staple...I should look good in them, not silly."

"You do look--" Bones quickly caught herself, "You look fine in them, _Eddy_. It's just it bothers me that I can't see your eyes."

"Oh," Booth's grin grew even wider, "You like my eyes? You like to look into my eyes, Bo--Izzie? Is that it? Well I'll take them off then to let you take a gaze into my big brown ones." He reached up and took the aviators off, a smug look on his face. Bones liked his eyes.

"For your information I do NOT like to gaze into your eyes. Eye contact with you just helps me read you better, okay? So where were we..." Bones looked at her hands for a second and then raised her eyes to his gaze again.

"Okay," Booth said, "Let's recap. We are Edward and Isadora Connelly. We met at your best friend Val's wedding when I accidentally bumped into you on my way to retrieve my sister from the women's bathroom. The physical attraction was instant and I asked you out for a coffee the next day and then boom---"

Brennan continued for him, "We were inseparable. After that we dated for 4 years. You proposed to me," she had nearly choked on the word "proposed", "on the beach while we were on vacation in North Carolina and we got married earlier this year---"

Booth finished, "In a small church in your hometown in Pennsylvania. My job relocated me to Texas and we are looking for a healthy environment to raise our children in and that's how we stumble upon Cumberfield Gardens."

"Perfect."

"Perfect." echoed Booth.

Their waitress hastily came over. "Check?"

"Perfect," they both crowed in unison.


	15. Chapter 6: Part 2

**Chapter 6:Part 2**

Booth and Bones were back at Cumberfield Gardens, now as Eddy and Izzie Connelly.

Bones shot an unsteady look at Booth, "Well here we go. I really hope we find both the bodies and Sweets, and fast. I am starting to get a really bad feeling about all this."

Booth let his gaze slip over to the woman in the passenger's seat.

"I thought you never base anything off of a "feeling", you always need the hard evidence."

"Well we have plenty of substantial evidence that whatever we are walking into isn't going to be good." Bones was worried, and because of this she was testy because she never got particularly jumpy, only testy.

"Alright, alright, alright. I won't let anything bad happen to you, you know that don't you?"

Brennan again broke eye contact with Booth and stared at her hands. When he said things like that she grew very uncomfortable. It wasn't that she didn't trust Booth, because she did, decidedly so. It was just the fact that she had had so many people say that in the past and then somehow they would disappear from her life. What would Sweets say about that? He would probably feed her something like "You have deep seated abandonment issues stemming from the departure of your---"

Sweets!

She snapped back to reality with a jolt.

"You know that right?" Booth repeated, peering at his partner to make sure she was okay.

"Yes, I do. Now let's go in there and see how this whole thing" she waved a hand to encompass the compound, "Fits into our case."

"You got it, " Booth replied, "Now hold onto your seat little mama, because I have a feeling we are in for a bumpy ride."

"Cut the crap, Eddy, let's just go."

With that they pulled up to the gates of Cumberfield Gardens and buzzed in and then slipped into the community, into character and into the oncoming jam.


	16. Chapter 6: Part 3

Chapter 6:Part 3

**"This place has their own visitor's center? Who do they think they are, St. Kissame or something?" Booth looked disgusted and bewildered as they pulled into the Cumberfield Gardens Welcome Center.**

**He looked over at Bones, who had been eerily quiet.**

**"I was expecting something from you about not wanting to kiss me?" he prodded as they parked.**

**She blinked blankly at him, "I know my geography Boo-..Eddy."**

**The squeak of the seat alerted Bones to the fact that her partner was shifting his body weight to turn to face her.**

**"What's up?" he bit his tongue to refrain from adding her nickname to the end of the question. Damn. This was going to be harder than her had originally thought.**

**"Nothing." She waved his concern away quickly. "I'm just thinking."**

**"Yeah, but you think all the time, and deeply too and you seem to function just fine. I thought multi-tasking was one of your strong points."**

**"It is!" she snapped at him, and then sighed, immediately sorry she had snapped.**

**"Eddy," she forced out the fake name, "I'm sorry I got short with you. There is just something about this place that bothers me...and reminds me of something else and I can't put my finger on it. It's in the back of my brain and I just can't scrape it out."**

**Bones suddenly felt a warm hand on her shoulder.**

**"Just relax, okay and it will come. You are trying to hard right now. As soon as you stop trying to remember that is exactly when you WILL remember."**

**"But that makes no sen---"**

**He cut her off by turning her to face him. She'd been staring at her hands again and not at his face. This bothered him more than he would care to admit.**

**"Trust me." He said to her softly, punctuating this statement by squeezing her shoulder.**

**"Okay," she sighed, pulling away from him and reaching for the door.**

**Booth reached for his aviators. He didn't want Brennan to see that the fact that she had pulled away from his touch bothered him so much.**

**They got out of the car and entered the visitor's center.**

**A well dressed, rather large man sat behind the front desk. He was tilted back in his chair and reading a paper. The paper was called "The Community Informer". Brennan made a mental note of this and tucked it into the back of her brain.**

**"A ding ding!" Booth said cheerfully, ringing the bell at the front desk twice.**

**The walrus-like man started and put down his paper and got up out of his chair. He quickly smoothed out his rumpled clothes and offered a stout hand to each of them.**

**"Lionel Porter," he introduced himself in wheezy tones, "Director of the Community visitor's center and proud member of the community real estate agency. What can I do you young folk fer?"**

**"I'm Eddy Connelly," Booth introduced himself with his fake name," And this is my wife," he wrapped one large hand around Brennan's hip and pulled her in close to him garnering a scathing look from her...**

**"Isadora Conelly," Temperance completed, introducing herself. She desperately wanted Booth to remove his hand from her hip. It felt like the fabric from that part of her dress might disintegrate at any moment and it was making her extremely uncomfortable. But now that his hand was there added onto the fact that they had to pretend to be newly weds...well...now there was nothing Brennan could do about it.**

**"Oh," Lionel threw his chubby hands together, producing a large clap, "You must be newlyweds!" Booth and Brennan both nodded, "And you must be looking for a house in our community then."**

**"Yes actually we are looking for a particular..." Booth gave her hip a squeeze, knowing it would immediately shut her up.**

**"Ly nice house." Booth continued, shooting a sideways glance at Brennan from behind his aviators.**

**"Okay, well here is a sort of scrap book of all the homes we have available," Lionel replied, placing a thin tome on the counter. "If any of them fit what you have in mind just let me now and I'll grab the key and we can go walk over to see it. You know what our community does for potential buyers too? They get a complimentary three day stay in the home to figure out if they want to buy it or not. Isn't that nice?"**

**"Yeah it...look Izzie!" Booth blurted, pointing to a house in the book the man had given them. She looked at where his finger was lying and read the address to herself.**

**"This is it!" The address she had just read matched the address on the back of the Saint's medal. Hopefully they were getting closer to the bodies, Sweets and the bottom of this case.**

**"Ah yes," Lionel replied quietly, turning the book around to face him, "that one was recently vacated." Brennan noticed his voice sounded a little sad when he spoke about it.**

**"A really nice couple lived there...the Gregorys. Jared and Maura and their young son...Jack. One day Maura just up and left...disappeared on Jared, she was gone in a flash. The poor guy was so wrecked he moved him and his son out of that house and into another one clear across the community. It's been about a month and some now, and there is still no word from Maura. We have all just come to assume she is never coming back."**

**"Sir, I can't help but notice that you sound awfully sad when you speak about this. Did you have any kind of personal connection to the Gregorys?" Brennan ventured.**

**"Well we are all pretty close here in the community and when someone decides to leave we don't often take it too lightly." he sighed, eyes on the floor, "But yes," he said suddenly making eye contact with Brennan, "Maura Gregory was my daughter. Well," he cleared his throat, "Let's get to showing you two lovebird that house then shall we?"**

**"Yes," Booth replied, his curiousity piqued, "Let's."**

**The undercover couple were led to the house that matched the address on the back of the saint's medal. It was a gorgeous house, like all the others in the community. **

**The light yellow victorian-style stood two stories high and boasted a wrap around veranda, a screen door and a very well manicured lawn. Many other house of the same type littered the neighborhood.**

**"Well this is the one," Lionel said, hopping out of the back of their SUV. Booth had asked that they be able to drive over so that they could activate the three day trial run of the house. Lionel had heartily agreed. **

**He looked at them now through the open SUV door, "I'll walk back and leave you two lovebirds alone. I hope you choose to make your home in our wonderful community. See you around...don't worry about me," he added, seeing the look on Booth's face, "I'll walk back." **

**With that, Lionel Porter turned his back and started down the street.**

**Booth immediately hopped out and got their bags from the trunk.**

**Brennan just as quickly snatched hers away from him as he could get it out.**

**"Your welcome?" he intoned.**

**"Thank you," she offered a bit guiltily. Brennan hated the whole idea of chivalry. Women were independent, they didn't need men to do things for them, thank you.**

**The pair clambered onto the porch. Booth dropped his bag and held his arms wide.**

**"Welcome to our humble abode, sweetie."**

**Brennan snorted, "Now you're starting to sound like Ange."**

**He lowered his aviators to the tip of his nose, "Honeybunch," he sang out, "sugar pie..."**

**She hit him playfully in the stomach with her bag.**

**"Stop it!" she squealed, laughing, "Let's go inside, unpack and then explore."**

**Booth nearly ran to the door to open it for her, "You first, wifey."**

**She rolled her eyes at him as she passed through the door, "THANK YOU, hubby."**

**"Wow this place is nice...it's got everything." Booth nearly shouted, his head in the refrigerator, "they even stocked the fridge for potential buyers. Isn't that neat?"**

**"Fishy is more like it." Brennan replied from her seat on the bed. She was in the master bedroom at the top of the stairs, rummaging through her bag and praying that she had remembered to bring a pajama shirt.**

**"Hey, Bones!" he called upstairs, "Would you like a glass of wine before you retire?" They had decided to call it a night and wake up early to start the investigation/recovery of Sweets in the morning.**

**She ignored the fact that he had let her nickname slip. Considering that they were alone she'd figured it was okay. "Sure, god knows I need one after today."**

**Booth quickly appeared it the door frame, two wine glasses in one hand and the bottle in the other.**

**"What are you rummaging around for?" he asked as he watched her exasperatedly tear through her bag.**

**"A pajama shirt," she barked not looking up for a moment, when she did she had to fight the smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.**

**"Now that's an image I thought I would never see. Thomas the tank engine boxers? Last time I checked I didn't think Thomas the tank engine went so well with wine. I didn't even know they made those things in your size."**

**Scarlet patches started to burn on Booth's cheeks.**

**"First of all," he sputtered, "You aren't supposed to know who Thomas the tank engine is...and second of all...they are from Parker. He gave them to me for Christmas last year...he has a matching pair. Lastly, you own an air supply t-shirt. I rest my case."**

**"Right.." she came off the subject right away, "How about some of that wine," she murmured, redirecting her attention again to her bag.**

**"Bones..."**

**"What?"**

**"Um...if you need to you can borrow one of my dress shirts to sleep in."**

**Brennan's head shot up, "Really? That would be great...I mean...thanks, Booth."**

**Minutes later Brennan was dressed in one of Booth's white dress shirts and her pajama shorts. She was perched on the bed, reading glasses on, going over the notes she had taken on the bodies before they had been stolen, her glass of wine on the bedside table along with the bottle itself.**

**Booth was next to her on the bed, flicking through the channels on the television, his glass of wine, now drained, sat on the desk by the grand windows. He stopped on the Hockey game.**

**"You know," he said chuckling a bit, "We really do look like a married couple right now. You are over there being all wifely and reading before you go to bed and I am over here watching the game. We are going to fool everyone."**

**"Unless nosy neighbors are spying on us." Brennan didn't look up from her notes.**

**"And why is that?" Booth asked.**

**"Because I'm sleeping on the couch tonight."**

**"OH NO YOU AREN'T THAT COUCH IS MINE! You're staying here. I'm going to wait until you fall asleep and then move out to the couch. The decision is made." Booth nearly bellowed.**

**"I'm going to wait until YOU fall asleep and then I'LL move out to the couch."**

**"I was an army sniper, Bones, you can't outlast me."**

**"Wanna bet?"**

**In the end it was Booth that fell asleep first.**

**By that time Brennan was so exhausted that all she did was remove the remote from his hand, turn off the t.v., put her notes on the bedside table, switch off the light and fall into a deep sleep.**


	17. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Something had woken Brennan up in the middle of the night. For the second time that week her eyes snapped suddenly open and her brain had to pull itself from the fuzzy wreckage of confusion. She felt a man's large arms wrapped firmly around her body.

A man? She hadn't slept with a man in... suddenly her brain began to come around to full awareness.

"What---Booth?" she said groggily, struggling at the same time to dislodge herself from his grasp and kicking him in the process.

There was a disgruntled snore and then, "Huh!" the special agent's eyes snapped open and his grip on his partner loosened.

"You had your arms around me." That wasn't what had woken her though, something else had, some noise or something like that...she was more concerned about that than she was about Booth's arms being around her, "And I thought I heard something."

"Sorry about the whole arms thing Bones...when I sleep I have to have my arms around something...at home sometimes it's Parker and when he isn't there it's just my sheets or a pillow."

So like him, thought Brennan, to even be protecting something in his sleep.

'You used to sleep with a stuffed animal when you were little didn't you...?"

"No...I..."

"Yes.."

"Okay, he was a lion and I named him Rory.."

"How original," Brennan stated dryly, looking out the window. A light bulb went on in her head. The side yard had sensor lights and they had turned on. Something had been moving around in their..the house's (she mentally corrected herself) side yard... something large enough to trip the sensor light.

"Something tripped the sensor light outside, Booth, let's go and investigate."

"Like this?"

She pulled him out of bed, "Yeah..come on."

The couple walked outside and looked around, doing their best to scour the entirety of the grounds.

"No one." Booth said.

"No one," Brennan echoed.

"Let's go back to bed."

They were too tired to even fight about sleeping on the couch anymore.

Thoughts of the flickering sensor light swirled in her head before she fell back into a dreamless sleep. She knew someone had been out there. But why would anyone want to investigate her and Booth already? The only man they'd introduced themselves to had been Lionel and he seemed harmless enough.

Brennan was so tired and so preoccupied that she didn't even notice when Booth's arms snaked around her waist.


	18. Chapter 8:Part 1

**Chapter 8: Part 1**

"BOOTH!" A half naked sopping wet Brennan nearly pounced on him.

"Bones..!? What..AH!" He rolled over and buried his face in the pillow,"Mo moorm mom mum molz."

"What?"

"Go put on some clothes!" he had lifted his head from the pillow, his eyes tightly shut and managed to choke out the statement. A half naked, wet Bones was not exactly how he been planned on getting woken up.

"Booth," she said a lot more quietly, a graveness laced into her voice, "There are cameras everywhere in this house. EVERYWHERE."

"What!?" he shot up out of the bed to get confronted with the picture of his partner only wrapped in a towel, he quickly turned his head and stared a picture on the far side of the wall.

"I found one in the shower and then canvassed the rest of the house to investigate. They are in every room."

"You walked around the house like THAT?"

She ignored this statement and barreled on. "I called Hodgins at the lab and he is coming along with the rest of the team. I really just asked for him to come...but that's beside the point. Anyway, Hodgins is going to tap into the community's camera system from a surveillance van and see what he can find. Our team will be able to communicate with us via tiny earpieces. The rest of the team is coming equipped with sort of a portable Medico-Legal lab for if and when we find the bodies, or for if and when we find more. So get dressed because the team should be here soon." She threw some clothes at him.

"What time did you place the call?" he was making the calculation of how long it would take for the team to drive from D.C. to Texas.

"The team is flying in and two government personal are driving over the vans...so please get dressed."

"You get dressed."


	19. Chapter 8:Part 2

**Chapter 8: Part 2**

Booth cracked the door of the bathroom after he had gotten dressed and pressed his lips to the crack.

"Are you dressed yet? Is it alll clear?" he felt like he was back in elementary school when he still thought girls had cooties. It wasn't that he thought Brennan had cooties...it was just...well I guess you could say that seeing her in any state of undress was NOT on the top of his list of things to do at the moment. It would probably open a can of worms he wasn't ready to swallow if....

"Yes, Booth. It's safe for you to stop hiding in the bathroom." came his partner's voice from the bedroom beyond.

He emerged from the bathroom in nearly the same outfit that he had worn the day before, except this tip the white dress shirt had been exchanged for a black one.

He looked at her steadily, "I was not hiding."

She smiled at him, "I never thought that you of all people would cower in fear when confronted with an undressed woman..."

"I just...its just I don't have a strong desire to see you...in your birthday suit..."

Bones raised her eyebrows at him, "Ditto. Now, let's go back to that diner we were at yesterday...thats were I told the team to meet us."


	20. Chapter 9:Part 1

**Chapter 9: Part 1**

Our favorite undercover couple sauntered back into the diner that they had shared coffee in the previous day.

It looked pretty much the same as they left it except for the fact that a booth by a window was full of their favorite people---Brennan couldn't help but smile when she noticed how far Cam had shoved herself up against the dirty diner wall in a feeble attempt to put space between her and Zach. Angela and Hodgins had their heads together and where sharing a whispered conversation. It was Angela that was the first to spot them. Her well groomed eyebrows nearly disappeared into her bangs.

"Wow, sweetie you look HOT! And the mister doesn't look to bad either if you catch my drift."

Angela offered a wide smile at Booth. The rest of the team had halted what they were doing and were now staring at the duo.

Hodgins nearly spit out his coffee when he spotted Brennan.

"Wow Dr. McB, you clean up pretty nice!" he leaned over to Angela, "Her legs are almost as nice as yours."

Angela hit Hodgins playfully in the chest.

Cam raised an eyebrow at Hodgins, "Dr. Addy...it would be much appreciated if you picked your jaw up off of the table top and it would also be much appreciated if we could get down to business."

"Dr. Saroyan my jaw is nowhere near the tabletop as it would be physically impossible for that to happen due the anatomy of..."

Cam held up a hand, "It's just a common expression, Zach." She turned to Booth and Bones and tried to suppress a laugh at Booth's get-up. "Please, sit down. You fill us in and we'll do the same for you."

"Well there is nothing really to tell yet."

"Yes there is. We met a man named Lionel Porter when we first arrived. He told us that his daughter, Maura, had disappeared a couple months ago. You also know that the community we are investigating appears to be some sort of exclusive group with a set of rules in place. We don't know what they are yet, but we are going to try and find out."

"We also know that your entire house was wired with cameras, which is why I am here. And which is why I get to bring out the BIG GUNS!" Hodgins pulled out a silver case and opened it. It contained set of earpieces.

"I thought those only existed in spy movies," Cam said fascinated.

"What you don't know is most of the spy movies are based off of some sort of underlying truth...did you know that the..."

"The case Hodgins!" Booth and Bones exclaimed in unison.

"Oh right...so these earpieces here..." he held up one, "You just slip it into you ear like a regular hearing aid. These things are really nifty...they even have technology built in so we can pick up your audio. You press this little button" Hodgins showed them a small button in the middle of one, "to turn them on and off. Here you go!" Bones and Booth each grabbed for one quickly and put them in an ear.

"The surveillance van and portable Medico-Legal lab should be here soon...but for now it's your job to go back to Cumberfield Gardens and see what you can find out about the bodies, the murder, the community and our very own Dr. Lance Sweets."

"We're on it," replied Booth, basically dragging Bones out of the diner with him.

"Wow she looked good!" Ange exclaimed as she watched the two get into the SUV.

"Do you think he noticed?," asked Dr. Hodgins, a small smile working it's way onto his face.

"Sweetie, I think he has to force himself not to notice."

Hodgins' smile broadened as he turned to the team, "I think those polar ice caps may be melting faster than we think."


	21. Chapter 9:Part 2

Chapter 9: Part 2

**"A ballroom dancing class? Booth, these people can't be serious? They want us to come to a ballroom dancing class so they can get acquainted with us!?" She stared at her partner as she read the note that had been left in their mailbox.**

**"C'mon, Bones...it's a great way for us to get to talk to people..you know..see if we can find anything out about missing Maura..."**

**"And Sweets." she added, frowning at him.**

**"Plus, it says here that tonight they are going to be learning latin dance and I know my cha-cha to be pretty good."**

**Brennan laughed loudly and followed it up with a snort.**

**'What?!"**

**"I'm sorry Booth, I just don't picture you as being very light on your feet...I just tried to imagine you dancing..."**

**"I'll show you...I'm probably better at it than you are..."**

**"Well, I guess we'll see when we get there. Time to dive headfirst into the crazy box."**

**"Looney bin, Bones...it's called the Looney bin."**

**"Oh, right."**

**Dr. Lance Sweets was going to be forced to be engaged to some woman. The people who ran this community...who ever they were...had explained to him that for some reason the community needed to reach a certain quota and in order to do that they needed to have people start to procreate....which meant that he would be used to further their purpose. As revolted as he was by the whole idea, he had nothing to defend himself with so he just had to wait for Booth and Brennan to get a move on.**

**The trap door opened again and in walked the same woman from before, but this time another woman accompanied her. The woman who accompanied her was a tall, statuesque, no-nonsense looking red-head. Sweets did have to admit that the woman was very beautiful but he didn't want to marry her!**

**"This is Diana," said the blonde woman from before, "She's to be your partner. The higher ups said that they'd give you two a trial two weeks to see if you get along and then decide what they want to do..."**

**"Wait!" Dr. Sweets protested, "that's not fair! This is my life...you can't just kidnap me and cart me off to a place like this and then use me for the advancement of whatever sick little cult you have going on here..."**

**The blonde woman smiled serenely at him, "Life ain't fair honey. You two will be fully expected to attend the social tonight. So get yer dancing shoes on and make sure you show up at the community center at 6pm sharp. Diana'll get you there. Fer now I'm going to leave you two to get acquainted...you'll go back to Diana's place later and she'll show you around." **

**With that the strange woman left him with Diana.**

**Sweets immediately confronted the woman, "I'm sorry I just don't think I can..."**

**The woman smiled at him and suddenly flashed him an FBI badge.**

**"You have nothing to worry about Dr. Sweets. My name is Dr. Sarah Switzer and I am a special agent for the FBI. I've been undercover here for 3 years now. So, how bout we get you out of here and go to that community dance social. I'll explain everything to you back at the house...then we'll make our appearance and somehow get you back to D.C. I can't blow my cover so I'll have to make up some way that you got away..."**

**Sweets was still highly confused as he let her led him out of the place that had been his prison for nearly two days.**


	22. Chapter 10: Part 1

**Chapter 10: Part 1**

That day Booth and Brennan had gone to speak to Jared Gregory and hadn't been able to get so much as even an inkling of anything out of him that would be relevant to the case.

He had closed up like a clam went they had prodded him for information about his dead wife saying, "Who are you and why do you want to know?"

Booth had nearly blown their cover by whipping out his FBI badge but Brennan had saved them both by just commenting that they wanted to make sure that they would be bringing their children up in a relatively safe neighborhood and had heard that his wife had disappeared so they wanted to find out a little bit about what had happened.

The man had just looked at them deadpan and said, "Curiousity killed the cat Mr. and Mrs. Connelly."

"Well, he wasn't weird or anything." had been Booths sarcastic comment when they had finally left the house.

When they got back in the SUV Brennan had finally replied, "Booth," she said...she could never get used to using the silly moniker that she had given him before, "remember when I asked to use the bathroom?"

"Yeah?" he'd replied as he'd turned the key in the ignition. He'd given her a sideways look to accompany his questioning tone.

"I investigated the whole upstairs..."

"And....??"

"I looked everywhere up there and Mr. Gregory had no pictures of his wife around the house..."

"Well maybe that's part of his grieving pro---"

"Not even in his son's room..."

Booth had just given her a look and driven back to "their" house.

Now it was time to go to the community social and they were both getting dressed.

"Do you think that we have to look really fancy for this Bones?" Booth asked. He really didn't like the whole idea of having to take some ballroom dancing class with Bones...all that holding her close and twirling her around stuff made him nervous. He wanted to limit physical contact as much as he could between him and Brennan. As if almost seeing her half-naked that morning was not enough to give him a heart attack he was now going to have to have that same body pressed so close into his...his PARTNER's body...it could be worse...she could be...

"BONES!" he jumped as she interrupted his reverie by entering the room in a the same little red number she'd been sporting all day...except this time her hair was...and she was wearing these heels that made her legs look AMA...he squelched these thoughts immediately...being attracted to your partner was never a good thing, look where...

Brennan's voice interrupted his thoughts.

"What you are wearing now is perfect..."

He was in dress pants and a dress shirt with a popped and an unloosened tie.

"Of course you'll have to..." she stepped toward him to fix his collar and tighten his tie.

Booth sharply inhaled before he backed up and almost fell backwards over the bed. She somehow didn't notice this and completed her work.

"There...now we look perfect." she took him in in one fell sweep of her blue eyes, "Without a jacket you almost look like a squint." She offered him one of her small mischevious smiles and turned to exit the room.

"A squint! Hey..Bones...wait...I do not..." he called, hurrying out the door to catch up with her.


	23. Chapter 10: Part 2

**Chapter 10: Part 2**

They arrived at the community center exactly on time.

At least they would be making a good "first impression", being punctual and everything.

These were Brennan's thoughts as she exited the SUV and scooted around in her seat, making sure both her legs exited the vehicle first, and together.

Booth shot her a quizzical look, "Bones...what are you doing?"

She replied without even turning to face him just as Angela's voice blared from the earpiece that he had put in before he had exited the house...

"Booth, I am exiting the car in the proper ladylike manner..."

Angela put it to him in laymen's terms. "She's making sure she doesn't flash the whole world, sweetie."

"Oh," Booth replied, scratching his neck uncomfortably, 'Right."

"By the way, if I didn't mention it before, you both look very...hmmm...yummy."

"Especially ." came Hodgins' voice, "What say you Booth? Don't worry, your earpieces are programmed to separate channels. Did you know that this complex has cameras literally everywhere? But I mentioned that to you before...what I really want to know is...you are smart enough to know that the polar icecaps are melting...right?"

Booth rolled his eyes and muttered something that sounded like, "Et tu Brutae?" before jumping out of the car to join his partner.

"You know Booth this could be fun!" Bones trilled after watching the instructor at the front of the room, "Plus we'll have a chance to really get to know other people with the whole partner change idea..." she leaned into his ear, "It might really helps us gather some information for the case."

"I feel like I need popcorn for this." Angela's voice came in loud and clear into Booth's earpiece.

Booth made a face. "Well I don't like it...not at all. I don't like having to dance with you, I don't like the whole partner change thing... I don't like..."

She was looking at him, dismayed.

"Maybe I should just change partners now if you don't want to dance with me..."

"I didn't mean it that way...it's just that you are my partner...and some of those moves..."

"Let's just dance," she hissed, "the music is starting."

"And my palms are itching like crazy!," came Hodgins' voice into Booth's earpiece. Booth was just about ready to rip the thing out of his ear.

Round and round the room they twirled and Brennan made sure to plant a heel on her partners toe. She didn't know why his statement had made her so mad, but it had. Feelings have to be irrelevant, she tried to remind herself, this WAS supposed to be about the case.

Ignoring her own advice she had planted her heel on his big toe anyway.

"Ow!" he had nearly howled, then leaned in close to her ear, "I'll get you back for that."

Next time he twirled her in he gripped her a bit too tight, and her hips ground against his.

"I'd like to see you try."

He dipped her low, "it'll be when you are least expecting it."

She came up slow, one leg wrapped around her partner's waist, "Then I'll always be expecting it."

"Bravissimo!" the instructor's voice broke their tense electricity, "You have preformed the Paso Doble exquisitely! You two must have quite a connection...unfortunately it is now time for a partner change...go meet another couple a switch off with them!"

Sweets and FBI Special Agent Dr. Sarah Switzer had actually been enjoying themselves... that is... until they looked across the room.

"That's Agent Booth and Dr. Brennan!" came Sweets' excited whisper into Switzer's ear.

He chuckled a bit, "I should have figured that they would be too busy bickering this whole time to bother with saving me...come on...let's go over to talk to them."

It was the perfect opportunity to do so, as the dance instructor had just announced that it was time to trade off partners.

Sweets started in the direction of the undercover couple too early to notice that Sarah's face had gone pale.

"Look! It's Sweets!" Brennan intoned.

Booth turned around to see the baby-faced doctor walking their way. It was only when he saw the woman following the psychologist that he nearly dropped Bones, whom his arms were still around.

"Booth!" said the woman in a half whisper.

"Switzer!" replied Booth.

The two then engaged in what looked like a long, intense and shocked stare.

Brennan was confused, Sweets was a little less so.

"I think the must know each other from somewhere else..." Brennan whispered to Sweets.

"Well that would make sense, considering Doctor Switzer is with the FBI."

"I hate to break up your little reunion Booth...but don't you have a case to solve?" came Angela's voice from his earpiece.

Right.

Quickly he turned to Bones and introduced the strange woman that had been with Dr. Sweets.

"Bones," he whispered softly so that no one would hear him, "This is my former partner, FBI special agent Dr. Sarah Switzer. We were partners right up until I got reassigned," his gaze slipped over to Dr. Switzer with what almost looked like guilt in his eyes, "to work with you."


	24. Chapter 10: Part 3

Chapter 10: Part 3

**Dr. Sarah Switzer had slowly taken in her surroundings. **

**She'd been posted here for over a year and she was trying to think of anything at all that would be relevant to the case that Dr. Sweets had explained was being worked on at the Jeffersonian. Two women had recently "fled the coop" so to speak in the last couple of months...and accidents happened an awful lot around the community. The red headed doctor had known something foul was afoot but she had no real evidence that murder had been committed...she had plenty of evidence to build a case against the community as being a potentially violent cult and she had a multiple list of charges that she could read of to the community leader, Chandler. She had been thinking about this at the end of her rather clumsy, but fun bout of dancing with Dr. Sweets when the instruct had announced the "partner change." The young psychologist seemed to murmur something that she didn't quite catch and clearly indicated for her to follow him.**

**When she did she was confronted with an image that knocked her was her former partner, dressed head to toe in what looked like perfect clothes to be undercover in in a small community in Texas.**

**"Booth!" was all the usually well spoken and eloquent Dr. Switzer had managed to stammer out. After he'd been reassigned she thought that they'd never see each other again, and the pain of him no longer being her partner, companion and friend had dealt a whopping blow to the usually steely FBI agent.**

**"Switzer!" he pinned his eyes on her and then held her gaze. She could still see the guilt that was swimming in their kind chocolate depths. He still thinks it is his fault, she thought, even after three years it still weighs on his shoulders. How she had missed the man! She was only quite coming to grasp the gravity of her actual feelings for him when he had asked to be reassigned and now that confusion all came rushing back. **

**You are logical, Sarah, she told herself. We have a case here...two people have been murdered.**

**And just like that, Agent Booth broke her gaze and leaned over and introduced her to his new partner...his new partner who was...**

**"Squi--" he started to say her nickname and then stopped himself, "Agent Switzer, this is my partner Dr. Temperance Brennan."**

**Dr. Switzer offered her a hand. So he was partnered with THE Dr. Brennan. She briefly wondered how he was handling it before Brennan's voice broke into her thoughts.**

**"It's very nice to meet you Dr. Switzer. What kind of doctor are you?" Brennan had tried to be warm, but she could feel the ice flowing through her veins. She couldn't be jealous though! That was absurd...it was completely normal that Booth and his former partner had just as strong a connection as....**

**"Medical." Dr. Switzer replied, "It's so very nice to make your acquaintance Dr. Brennan." She turned to Booth with a large grin on her face, "You realize your partner here could probably outwit every single member of MENSA, even if they were ALL working collaboratively against her, right? She's the real deal, Booth." she turned back to doctor Brennan, "I'm sure you two butt heads often...with him being a heart person and you being more of a head person. I can relate....but that's why you work together so well as a pair...you lead with logic and rationality and he leads with emotion and gut. It's an interesting sort of role reversal hmmm? "**

**Brennan was almost speechless and could feel her cheeks burning bright with the woman's compliment. She didn't want to like Dr. Switzer...she really really didn't but....**

**"How do you know who she is?" asked Booth, a bit annoyed. It was really making him sweat to have two women he cared about so much in one room together.**

**"Besides her being VERY well known in the medical world for her work in osteology," Sarah smiled to reveal a straight row of teeth, "I have read her books." Her gray eyed gaze shifted to Brennan with a questioning look, which Tempe picked up on right away...**

**"He's not..."**

**"I know." she replied before Brennan even got to complete her sentence.**

**"Anyway, enough with the introductions...I think it's time we should all go somewhere so I can tell you what I know. "**

**Brennan and Dr. Sweets started to walk out of the community center and Booth and Switzer hung behind.**

**"Squints," Switzer felt his hand on her shoulder and heard her old nickname...the sound of it almost made something sad catch in her throat.**

**"It's nice to see you again."**

**Dr. Switzer nodded as Booth started to walk ahead of her.**

**"Booth...you shouldn't still blame yourself, you know."**

**"But it was my fault."**

**"It was just as much your fault as it was my fault."**

**"But it wasn't your fault at all..."**

**"Exactly."**

**"Squints," he turned to look at her, "I still think about it everyday."**

**"I know, Booth, I know." she walked up to lay a hand on his arm, "But running away was the wrong thing to do."**

**With that she turned to catch up with the rest of the group and left Special Agent Seeley Booth standing in the community center, the colorful soiree going on behind him.**

**What he didn't know was that Brennan had heard the whole conversation and was already drawing all the wrong conclusions...**


	25. Chapter 10: Part 4

**Chapter 10: Part 4**

They were all waiting for him by the SUV.

He noticed Bones was leaning up against the passenger's side of the car, her arms crossed over her chest. What had Sweets said about a closed body posture? Something about being defensive. Well, she has a right to be, he thought to himself. He was seriously conflicted over the whole front seat issue...it WAS now Bones' seat but it used to belong to Squints...which is probably why Bones was standing in front of the door the way she was at the moment.

He let his brown eyes slip over to Squints whose light grey eyes met his with a sparkle. She smiled softly, "I'll sit in the back with Dr. Sweets," she said softly.

He fidgeted with his tie, "Thanks, Squints."

SQUINTS! Squints?

Did he give every partner he had a cheesy nickname? Did he just act like this with every partner he had?

Brennan had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach and was kicking herself for ever thinking that these feelings of... whatever between her and Booth somehow went deeper than just being partners and friends. Her intelligent brain was running itself in circles.

What was it that someone had once told her...love is illogical, you'll never make sense of it.

But she wasn't in love with Booth! That was completely absurd...she hated to think she had let him get close enough to her to the point where she had become vulnerable to him.

If she hadn't let him get under her skin than why was there this strange flare of heat when she saw him open the back door for Dr. Switzer and watched his hand press gently on the other woman's back to propel her into the car?

She shouldn't be feeling this way! She had no right to...Booth could do whatever he wanted concerning women...

It was the fact that this particular woman was Booth's former partner that bothered Tempe the most. He couldn't have crossed that professional line with her, he just COULDN'T HAVE, it was so unlike him....but the conversation she'd heard before.

"Honey, aren't you going to get in the car with them?" came Angela's sweet voice from inside her right ear. "I'm sure you are all confused as the rest of us, but you need to move so we can solve this case and get out of this creepo-ville."

"The polar ice caps aren't melting?" came Hodgins' voice from somewhere in the background...and then, "Ow, Ang...that hurt."

"Shut up, I know you like it rough!"

Brennan tried to tune them out and climbed into the car with Booth, Sarah and Sweets.

"Dr. Brennan, Agent Booth...you two look awfully tense with each other right now. Is there some conflict you might need to resolve or something you may need to talk about...remember communication is the key to a healthy working relation---"

"SHUT UP!" both Booth and Brennan snapped tersely at him from the front.

Dr. Switzer quirked an eyebrow, "If I had known you were a psychologist I might have just left you back there. You were smart not to tell me."

Sweets gave her a puzzled look.

"I hate psychology."

Sweets just snorted in response. No wonder Booth got along so well with Dr. Brennan...his former partner and his new partner shared certain similarities that Sweets was only just picking up on now.

It would be very interesting to watch the three interact in the next days to come...very interesting indeed.


	26. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Brennan had maintained her steely silence throughout the rest of the car ride to the was mad at Booth because he had clearly stated that he would never "cross the line" with one of his partners and clearly he had crossed it with this Switzer woman.

She was hurt and because she was hurt she withdrew into herself and preferred to act cold to Booth rather than confront him about the situation. She did want to ask him why he hadn't told her about this ex-partner before but she realized that she still wanted to hear the information from him willingly because it wouldn't have the same value if she had to force it out of him.

He noticed something was wrong.

"Earth to Bones! Is anyone in there?" he waved a hand in front of her face as they pulled into the parking lot, "Hey kid, what's going on? You have been unusually quiet throughout this whole car ride...and when I say it's unusual I'm not joking." He grinned at the two Drs. in the backseat, "She usually has something to say about everything."

"First of all, I am a full grown adult not a child," she replied icily, "And second of all I have nothing to say which is why I have been silent OBVIOUSLY."

"Woah." Booth replied taking his hands off the steering wheel and holding them up in front of himself, "What I have I done to invoke the wrath of the ice queen?"

This was obviously Sweets' que to come in, which he picked up on right away, "Dr. Brennan is upset because she is seeing that the rapport between you and Dr. Switzer here closely mimics the rapport that SHE has with you. This clearly upsets her because she had it in her head that your feelings towards her were different than any feelings you might have towards another human being in a similar situation. She, in a sense, thought that she was special to you and now she is feeling very put out because she is kicking herself for making an assumption based on what she felt versus logic. Am I right Dr. Brennan?"

Brennan pinned Sweets to the back of his seat with an icy glare and opened her mouth to reply, but all she could manage was a growling sort of noise. Sweets was just fueling the situation and because of this she was starting to agree with Booth's viewpoint that Sweets had not progressed past the stage of adolescence. Why did he always have to mettle with her and Booth?

"We have a case to solve." She said, turning back to Booth, "Let's go Booth."

She turned and opened the door and let her feet drop into the dirt parking lot.

Dr. Switzer, who had obviously been feeling uncomfortable, let out a long sigh and let her gaze slip over to Sweets, "I agree with her, let's go in and talk about the case over some coffee. I think everyone needs some of that." She leaned in closer to him, "And I really don't think what you did was right, fueling the situation like that."

With that she opened her door and got out to follow Dr. Brennan into the dinner. Lance just shrugged and did the same.

Booth was left staring at his hands on the steering wheel, still wondering what he had done.

His relationship with Brennan kept getting more and more confusing.

A half an hour later the group was all in the dinner discussing the case over coffee and food.

Much to Brennan's chagrin, Booth and Dr. Switzer were sitting side by side, sharing a hamburger. Apparently this was a tradition of sorts.

She really didn't like the thought that anyone else had traditions with Booth but had to admit that her feelings were a tad ridiculous. She had no reason to be jealous and no reason to think that Booth had not been just as close with his former partner as he was with her. The thing that really bothered her was the thought that it had never occurred to her before that someone like Dr. Sarah Switzer even existed.

She sighed, shoved a fry in her mouth and listened to the tail end of Dr. Switzers statement.

"So what you are saying is that we have a type of Christian cult on our hands under the leadership of this Chandler man and that it was most probably this Chandler who ordered someone in his community to kill the two pregnant women because he believed that their wombs could possibly house the anti-christ?"

"It sounds sort of like Waco." Booth took another bite of his hamburger.

The trio looked at him. Something intelligent had come out of agent Booths mouth and something even more intelligent was about to pop out...

"You know, those Branch Davidians or whatever they are called?"

"Booth you are brilliant!" Brennan almost felt like kissing him on the cheek before she remembered she was mad at him.

"What we have here is a twist on the Waco set up. Chandler lures people into his cult by advertising it as a gated community for people between a certain age range. If the cult has a quota this helps to fill it."

"A quota for what?" Booth asked, confused.

"Their transcendence to wherever they believe in...which in some cases translates to a massacre."

Dr. Switzer spoke up, "But they have also been weeding out people that they deem unworthy to make the trip by setting up their deaths as accidents. I have no concrete evidence that all the accident related deaths around the community have been premeditated but I have serious suspicions."

"Let's bag that Chandler creep!" Booth growled.

"You have no concrete evidence that it was actually him." Vocalized Dr. Sweets, swiping a French fry in ketchup.

"Booth," Brennan snapped out of a deep thought, "Whoever planted those bodies in the fishing net wanted them found and wanted it out in the news. Don't you remember the latin inscriptions in the bones? Annuit Coeptis and Abu no disce omnes."

"He has approved the undertakings and from one learn all." Dr. Switzer was quick to translate.

"Chandler leads his community by fear."

"We are going to go back to the ranch, turn in for the night and then bag the scumbag in the morning."

"He probably had somebody else do it for him."

All eyes were on Dr. Switzer.

"I would talk to Lionel Porter."

"Lionel? But the one victim is most probably his daughter."

"Exactly. Who would ever suspect kind old Mr. Porter could kill his own daughter, right? But at the command of Chandler it was all for the greater good."

After dropping Dr. Switzer and Sweets off with the rest of the Jeffersonian team, Booth and Brennan drove back to Cumberfield Gardens.

There was silence again, but this time Booth seemed to know just what to say.

He pulled into the driveway of the house and left the car running. He turned to his partner.

"Hey Bones."

She glared at him, her hands crossed defensively over her chest. He reached out and grabbed one of those hands.

"I just wanted to let you know that you are special. And you have a special spot right in here..." he touched her hand to his heart.

"Booth that is ridiculous! The only compartments in the organ known as the heart are the right and left atrium and the right and left ventricle."

"Bones...just go with me on this one."

"Okay," she sighed, but withdrew her hand anyway and then raised her eyes to him.

"Does Dr. Switzer have a special compartment in your heart too?"

"Yes," he was smiling, "But yours is bigger."

"Fair enough. Let's get to bed, it's been a long day." She unfolded had unfolded her arms but couldn't meet his gaze. Now she felt like an idiot for having have been mad with him.

"This time you won't argue with me when I say I'm sleeping on the couch though..."

"You can't---"

"You owe me one."

Bones was awoken in the middle of the night by the sensor light going off outside her building.

"Ange...Ange can you hear me? You aren't asleep are you?"

"Loud and clear sweetie. Hodgins and I are fully stocked on redbull and still going strong."

"Good, because I think there is someone outside our house."

"Let me check for you." Angela glanced at the televisions in the van that were set up like security monitors.

"Oh yeah...there is definitely a man out there."

Brennan ran into the living room and shook Booth awake.

"Bones...ah...what now?" he grumbled.

"Ange says that there is a man outside our house...I think we should go and investigate."

"Hold on." Booth responded reluctantly. He rolled over and pushed himself up from the couch. Brennan couldn't help but notice he was wearing the too tight Thomas the tank engine boxers again. She looked at his upper body and thanked god for the white undershirt he was wearing because she was sure her blush would have been obvious had he been shirtless.

They clambored out the door and looked around but saw no one. When they got near the driveway Booth gently pushed her up against the SUV.

Brennan could feel the door handle digging into her back.

"Booth," she whispered, "What are you doing?"

"Bones, we have to hide our faces....I saw the man and it's that boy from Laurence Bogan's crew that we thought was a little off. He'll recognize us for sure and our cover will be blown!"

"Well what do you want me to do?"

"Just hide your face in my shoulder or something."

"What about you?"

"Good point," Agent Booth took a breath, a plan running through his head. He took another deep breath, unsure of what he was about to do.

"Okay, Bones...just go with me here....and remember this is all for the good of the case."

"Booth what are you---- "

And before she knew it Booth's mouth was on hers in a very light kiss.

Her body reacted immediately before her brain could process what was happening. Her hands went up and grabbed the front of Booth's undershirt and she deepened the kiss.

"Oh my god!" came Angela's voice from the earpiece, "I feel like I should be paying money to watch this."

"You already are!" spoke a gleeful Hodgins.

"What---why?"

"Because, my lovely, I WON the pool."

"Like you need anymore money."

"That's not the point...I won!"

"I don't think a kiss really constitutes as them getting together or Caroline would have won when she pulled that little stunt back at Christmas."

Hodgins just sighed and looked at his fiancé. "Okay, I give up."

Brennan broke the kiss and met Booth with bewildered eyes. She was surprised to see he looked just as shocked as she did.

"Bones, what the hell was that for!"

"Newlyweds don't peck at each other like birds Booth."

"Oh," he sounded deflated, "I guess you are right."

Brennan looked down and cleared her throat "I guess we know who planted the bodies now."

"Yeah," Booth answered, his discomfort apparent in his voice, "We should get back to sleep now if we want to get up early in the morning to figure this whole thing out."

"Yeah."

They followed each other back into the house.

"Well goodnight then." Brennan said awkwardly as Booth settled himself back on the couch.

"Yeah, goodnight." He replied.

What Brennan didn't know was that Booth wouldn't get a wink of sleep that night. Instead he would lie awake replaying their kiss over and over again in his head and wondering if he had really done the right thing.


	27. Chapter 12: Part 1

Chapter 12: Part 1

**"Team Double B," Hodgins' voice came over their earpieces in the morning, right after both of them had slipped on their clothes. He sounded gravely serious.**

**"You have got to see this! We just had a new camera feed come in and it is of two skeletons in a basement and---"**

**"They are our stolen skeletons Dr. Brennan, I analyzed them from here and compared them to the copies of your notes you left for me," Dr. Zachariah Addy's voice came in loud and clear over the earpieces.**

**"Where is Ang?" asked Brennan, as her and Booth were clamboring out the door. The situation they were in was turning from bad to worse. Someone knew they were there and they were taunting them with the camera feed of the missing bodies. She let her eyes meet Booth's and could tell he was thinking the same thing. Everyone was in danger.**

**"She's sleeping, right here in the van with us." Hodgins replied.**

**"We started to work in shifts after the redbull wore off."**

**Brennan's sigh of relief was audible. She would have never been able to live with herself if anything had happened to Ang that could be directly linked to her.**

**"Dr. Brennan, Agent Booth...I think that there is more information that is pertinent to the case."**

**"Okay Zach, shoot." Booth replied as he turned his key in the ignition to start the car. The engine sputtered but didn't turn over. He tried again, just as Zach replied...**

**"I do not own or carry a firearm so how could I..."**

**"He means tell us the information," Brennan replied, rolling her eyes. Even she knew that one.**

**Booth was getting quite exasperated with the SUV, but managed to shoot a smile in her direction anyway. **

**"Very good Bones! You are learning well! DAMN IT! Why won't this start when we need it to the most." He was really getting frustrated with the car's lack of cooperation. They needed to get to Chandler's house and they needed to get there fast. Booth had a very large hunch that he was the mastermind behind this whole thing, especially after what Squints had told them the day before. Also, if they were dealing with a rogue group of Branch Davidians he knew that they all could jump off the of the crazy train at any minute and land smack dab into a huge group massacre.**

**"I'll go check...Eddy." Brennan smiled at him and jumped out of the car.**

**Booth rolled down his window, "Oh...like you know more about cars than I do?"**

**She looked at him flatly.**

**"You'd be surprised, pop the hood."**

**Booth snorted a little, but did as he was told. Most women look inside a car and have no idea what they are looking at and though he knew that Brennan was a VERY smart woman he didn't think that she exactly had an appreciation of things like cars.**

**But as always, his partner came through and surprised him.**

**"Well, I found the problem."**

**Booth could hear the frown in her voice, "And?"**

**"Someone cut the wire leading to the spark plug. These people definitely know who we are and why we are here...and they obviously don't want us mettling."**

**"There's one thing they don't know about." came Hodgins' voice from their earpieces.**

**"What?!"**

**"This big son-of-a-puppy I like to call the Hodgemobile."**

**Brennan could almost hear Zach's quizzical look through her earpiece.**

**"Okay," Hodgins admitted under Zach's stare, "So maybe that was lame...but what I was trying to say is that you still have transportation. We'll be by to pick you up in ten and then it is off to wherever your little hearts desire."**

**"Chandler's house." **


	28. Chapter 12: Part 2

**Chapter 12: Part 2**

When they got to Chandler's house the crew noticed a startling lack of video feed in the area.

"It looks like the Grand Poobah doesn't have any cameras in or around his house," Hodgins intoned from where he was sitting at the computer in the van.

"Why would he?" Brennan shot back.

She was slowly rubbing her shoulder which had banged into the side of the large van on their way over. It had been one of the most uncomfortable rides of her life. In fact, it had been even worse than her most uncomfortable ride with Booth and that was saying something. Then again it was almost impossible to be comfortable when you didn't have any seats to sit in. She let herself steal a glance at Booth who was checking to make sure all his equipment was in order. After making sure his gun was loaded he looked around at Angela, Hogdins, Zach and finally Temperance.

"You three," he pointed to Angela, Hodgins and Zach, "Stay in here. We have these," he touched his ear, "And if we need help we will tell you so you can call for back up. Bones," brown met blue in a hard look, "I know it would be useless to tell you to stay where you are so let's go."

Brennan smiled. Booth was right on the count of course, if he had told her to stay in the van she would have only followed him in anyway. Still, she simultaneously hated and loved the fact that he had gotten into her brain so much that he could accurately gage her reactions to things like this. Inadvertently she found her thoughts drifting back to Dr. Switzer...

"Bones," he whispered as he was pulling her towards the door of Chandler's house (well one couldn't even really call it a house, seeing as it was more like a mansion), "We are going to pretend to be Izzie and Eddy again. You are going to ask to use the bathroom and look for the door to the basement and then go down and investigate. I'm going to ask this Chandler character about the recent disappearances he has suffered within his community. Got it?"

She nodded as they rang the bell.

A handsome, well dressed man answered the door and offered them a broad smile and his hand.

"You must be the Connellys! Come in, come in! I'd love to have a chat with you two. It is, after all, the last day of your free trial in one of Cumberfield's fine homes and I'd like to see if you have made a decision yet. I am also very curious to learn all about you two. I always make sure I know very many details about couples who are new to the community. I am, after all, head of the council." Chandler showed them into his home, which Brennan immediately noticed was furnished a great deal nicer than theirs.

She also noticed an abundance of religious paraphernalia hidden intelligently around the room. The common eye would not notice the great abundance of it unless it was pointed out, especially since most was on the man's book shelf.

"It's very nice to meet you Mr...?" Booth raised his eyebrows at the man and Brennan could see that the hand that Booth had not offered rested firmly on his gun.

"Chandler," replied the man with a little laugh, "Just call me Chandler. I sort of disowned my last name during the 70s when I got caught up in that whole fad, you know." His smile grew broader.

"No, I don't really know, but that's not what my wife and I came here to talk about."

Brennan jumped in, "May I use your bathroom?"

"Of course, Mrs. Connelly, it's down the hallway and to the right." Chandler's icy eyes seemed to burn into her back as she got up and made her way down the hallway.

Based on what she had observed about how the house was built and how it's foundation was lain, the entrance to the basement was...just the door he directed her to?

She looked back, her eyes a bit wild, but it looked as if the conversation was going smoothly. Booth caught her eye and with the hand he hand now placed behind his back, waved her down the stairs.

Brennan swallowed the dread in her throat, and trusting her partner was right went down into the depths of Chandler's basement. She turned on the light and slowly turned in a circle in the middle of a completely empty basement.

"Angela, Hodgins, Zach...are you there?" she whispered

She counted to twenty before she asked it again, this time her voice was more urgent, louder.

"Anglea, Hodgins, Zach...anyone? I think we are going to need back up...please come---"

Suddenly from above her she heard a gun go off.

BOOTH!

"BOOTH!" she said it out loud and took off running up the stairs. The scene she took in sent a chill through her body. Her partner was on the floor clutching a bleeding shoulder, the hand is gun was in now useless and Chandler was standing over him with a gun.

The oily man turned and smile insidiously at her.

He pointed her gun straight at her chest an murmured, "You have over stayed your welcome here Dr. Brennan."

"And you have underestimated the power of a well trained woman." With two well placed kicks she knocked the gun out of the assailant's hand and had knocked him to the ground, unconscious. Just as she was walking over to grab the gun that had formerly been in Chandler's hands she heard a familiar voice behind her.

"And you have underestimated the power of a sneaky man."

The smell of chloroform mixed with her last thought just before she fell unconscious....Lionel?


	29. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13: Part 1**

When Brennan started to come around she was blearily aware that her arms and wrists hurt very much. It felt like her arms were being pulled in two opposite directions as well as backwards by two very strong men. She tried to flex her appendages but realized that should couldn't move them but an inch and quickly deduced that her wrists were bound to something...but what?

As her consciousness fully returned Brennan realized she was in a very open building with large colored windows and rows of benches. Her brain suddenly snapped wide awake. She was in a church?

Pieces of puzzling images came flashing back to her from her chloroform scrambled ...a gun...a red haired woman...Angela, Hodgins, Booth.

BOOTH!

A wave of knowledge flooded over her and she struggled against her bonds in futility.

She had to get off of this...cross?

Yes, she deduced from what she could see of her restraints...she was bound to a cross, but she was not very high from the ground.

Why in the world would someone want their victim's feet to still touch the ground if they were going to hang them up on a cross.

Victim. The word flashed bright in her head.

She was about to be a victim. Slowly she stopped struggling and regulated her breathing and let her eyes do a lap around the church.

Why would she be alone?

There, she saw a slight movement at the back of the church. A whale-like man was silhouetted in the entry way and moving slightly, rocking from foot to foot.

Who had she observed that characteristic in before?

Lionel Porter.

Yes, it had to be him.

But why would he kill his own daughter?

She hadn't much time for questions before Lionel spoke.

"Good morning Dr. Brennan." his voice was just as cheery as it had been when he welcomed her and Booth to the community.

"You wonder how I found out you and your lover boy were working for the FBI? Well, missy, I also happen to be security. There are cameras in the community center. Oh but you were so careful weren't you? Not quite...your partner laid this on the table one night when he was going into the shower..." he flashed Booth's FBI badge at her.

Booth! Her heart practically stopped with concern for him.

Taking a deep breath, Temperance Brennan looked to the sky and started to do something she thought that she'd never do. Temperance Brennan started to defy logic. Temperance Brennan started to pray.

"YOU DON'T THINK I'D LET YOU OR ANYONE RUIN MY CHANCE AT SALVATION DID YOU? My daughter...my daughter," Lionel almost faltered here, but suddenly pick right back and continued, "My daughter almost did that, as did her little friend. I couldn't let that happen so I just had to...I had to." He stopped his maniacal ranting and pinned his gaze on the praying Brennan.

Please, she was begging the sky, Please...not Booth. Not him. If you want someone take me...are you there? Is anyone there?

"I had to like I have to now."

Suddenly Brennan became aware of the growling of dogs from somewhere in the corridor beyond.

"It is a shame to loose such a pretty little intelligent thing like you too..." he said almost sadly, as he went back into the shadows.

Brennan closed her eyes and tried to calm her racing thoughts and her bursting was taking deep breaths as she heard the barking start and get louder....she could tell the dogs were in the room with her.

When she opened her eyes Lionel was at the back of the church, 4 leashed rottweilers in his grip.

4! Her thoughts spun back to the bodies she had found in the trawl net. The poor girls....those poor, poor girls.

She tried to swallow the quickly growing lump in her throat and quell the panic that was threatening to erupt in her chest.

Yes, she said silently, I'll take this as long as my friends are safe. I've contributed to the world with my work and my research and my books...my life has been full. Booth...Parker....

Her thoughts were coming in pieces now as her vision was blurring with tears.

No, she scolded herself even in what she believed was to be her last moments, You won't cry.

"Do you have anything to say in your last moments Dr. Brennan?" Lionel asked.

She nodded feebly and tried to form her mouth around the question...how could you kill your own daughter? Unfortunately it wouldn't come out.

She shook her head then an clenched her eyes tight, preparing for the worst. She thought about the marks on the bones she had found an deduced what it would feel like to have all those dog teeth and claws tearing into her flesh and marring her bones. A visible shudder ran through her suspended figure.

"Nothing?" the tone was ironic, "That's a surprise."

"She might not have anything to say, but we sure have a lot to talk about Mr. Porter," came a familiar voice, "freeze, FBI. You are surrounded."

Brennan's heart felt like it was about to burst with joy and her body grew weak. The FBI were here and the voice....her joy faltered here....the voice was not the one she wanted to hear. It belonged to someone she'd never thought she'd be glad to see...Dr. Sarah Switzer.


	30. Epilogue

**Ending/Epilogue**

Dr. Switzer gazed at the form in the hospital bed silently from her place at the door.

Booth was sleeping, but he was okay.

The bullet had lodged itself in his shoulder an he had to have it removed but he would be fine after he went through a bit of rehabilitation with his arm. Booth wouldn't like it, she knew, but she was glad she could assure him that it wouldn't affect his shooting prowess one bit.

felt a slight hand on her shoulder and turned her head slightly to see Angela standing there.

"It's very nice of you not to barge in there Dr. Switzer." she sounded exhausted but truly grateful to the red headed FBI agent. Angela Montenegro's eyes went to rest briefly on the slightly curly auburn head that lay unconscious on Booth's chest. If Brennan knew that she was going to fall asleep in that position she probably would have fought to keep her eyes open. Or not, Angela fought a small smile. Her friend had her chair as close as it could go to Seeley Booth's bedside and had folded her arms on top of his chest to rest her head there and fallen asleep. Angela was glad that her, Booth, Jack and Zach were all okay.

A man had come into the truck and knocked her and Jack out. The struggle had resulted in taking out the auditory equipment that allowed them to hear Brennan. Zach had been sound asleep in the corner under a blanket and upon hearing the struggle had sprung up and....as he liked to say...put enough force behind his clenched fist to sufficiently knock the assailant unconscious. Jack had been pleased and had made sure he poked a little fun at Zach for "decking" someone, but then he'd admitted that Zach was officially King of the Lab for it on the case.

After making sure their attacker was out cold Zach had found Hodgins cell phone and called Dr. Switzer right away and then had waited in the van with the unconscious forms of his two friends. Dr. Brennan almost had thought he had actually driven the van to the hospital when she had found out about the scenario and was about to scold him and be magnificently proud of him at the same time when she found out what really happened. Zach was always the logical thinker, even with his automotive awkwardness.

Dr. Switzer turned her eyes to Angela, "They are partners now. I am no longer his partner...I am simply a very good friend. As much as I want to go into that room and sit by his side...she is entitled to it first. " She let her gray eyes drift back to the scene in front of her.

Hodgins and Zach joined the two women peering in the doorway.

Hodgins put his arm around his fiance.

"Maybe we should leave them alone now, you know as much as you want to spy there is this little thing called privacy."

"They also have exceptional caffeinated beverages in the cafeteria." piped up Zach as he wagged his coffee in front of her.

Hodgins looked at Zach. "You deserve a drink with something more than caffeine in it after you decked that guy like a pro, my man."

Zach just blushed and smiled at his friend sheepishly.

"I wouldn't have hit him if he hadn't hit you two first." he stammered, a bit embarrassed.

"I know, I know. I still think it was awesome though...and I am very sad that I didn't get to witness it."

Angela saw Booth start to move and decided to take Jack's advice.

"I'm up for that coffee if you're buying." she turned to Jack.

"Of course my sweet. Let's go...." he let his gaze slip back over to Zach, "King of the Lab."

He smiled as he watched Zach puff his chest out a bit as they headed in the direction of the cafeteria leaving Dr. Switzer at the door.

The man in the bed stirred and Dr. Brennan's eyes fluttered open at his movement. She blearily registered that two familiar brown eyes were on her face and that the chocolate gaze was accompanied with a rather shaky version of a certain charm smile.

"What?" she asked, the sleep still in her voice. "You look like you know something I don't."

"I do." Booth said as she quickly sat up and straightened herself out.

"And what would that be?"

"You're still wearing that fake wedding band."

"Oh...I..." she stared at her hands uncomfortably as she had done so many time throughout the case. She was feeling vulnerable again and vulnerable did not look good on Dr. Brennan. She compartmentalized simply because she hated feeling vulnerable, especially around a member of the opposite sex. They always found a way to somehow take advantage of vulnerability. She knew Booth would never do that to her, but she still hated the feeling that he was under her skin somehow. She had built a very strong wall against other people because everyone who she had ever really let in had left her. Everyone who she had ever loved...her family...Agent Sullivan...they'd left and only appeared when they felt it convinient, or whenever they could. These infrequent appearances only served to rub salt in her wounds. The only other person that had ever broken through that wall was Angela and thankfully Angela had stayed with her. It had pained Brennan to think that Angela had almost gotten hurt today because Brennan had dragged her into this job. If she had known that it would ever put Angela in danger....

No, she chided herself, Angela was fine and she loves her job...and she has Hodgins because of it.

Still, she wasn't going to let Booth through the final wall to her heart because the chance of loosing him was so real. Booth and her made a living off of working in dangerous situations. If she let him in and then lost him...well Brennan didn't know if she could compartmentalize a blow that heavy.

She did have to admit he was doing a very good job of breaking the wall down with his broad shoulders.

She looked at him and gave him a weak smile, "I guess I forgot to take it off after everything that happened."

'Why don't you let me do it for you?" he reached for her hand and she pulled away.

"Booth," she looked at him and then quickly averted her eyes to the television," It's fine. I'll take it off when I get home. You should get more rest."

"Bones."

"Yes?"

"I don't want you to blame yourself for being in the basement when I was shot..." his eyes were on the back of her head and she could feel his gaze suddenly become serious.

"I don't." she lied.

"Good. You did do some pretty significant damage to that dirt-bag Chandler though."

"I was only doing my job."

"You didn't have to kick him in the throat." She heard the smile in his voice. She shrugged it off. He was getting too close to confronting her about her feelings again.

She picked up her keys off the bedside table.

"Well I guess I should let everyone else have a turn with you." She got up and turned to leave.

"Bones."

"Yes." she turned back to him. God. Why did he always have to be shirtless in these situations?

"After this heals and everything, do you want to go to the diner?"

"Why, so you can offer me pie again just for me to refuse it?"

"No...just because it's our after case place. Can't break tradition, you know. It's unlucky."

"Even though I don't believe in luck...I'll still go with you Booth. Wait," her gaze slipped to the door where Dr. Switzer was. "Don't you have a date with Dr. Switzer when you get out too?" Dr. Switzer had ridden to the hospital in the ambulance with Booth and apparently, in a move that Bones wanted to desperately attribute to delirium, had asked her to go out on a date with him after all "this" was over. Brennan had fumed about two things all the way to the hospital....

a) She should have been in the back of the ambulance with him

and

b) He'd said HER compartment was bigger.

The way he was looking at her now she was sure it was bigger too. But she couldn't blame him for asking Dr. Switzer out...after all she WAS only his partner. To have any feelings beyond that would simply be illogical and detrimental to their working relationship.

"Yeah," he sighed uncomfortably and winced at the pain in his shoulder as he shifted a bit, "But it's not exactly a date. It's just to...see how she's doing...how things are."

The statement was vague and Brennan eyed him suspiciously.

"Okay...Bones, do you want to know why I asked to be reassigned?"

Brennan sucked in her breath sharply. He'd asked to be reassigned? If he had crossed the line with her...

"I asked to be reassigned because we were working on a case together, hunting down a man who was a serial child rapist and killer." She saw guilt creep into her partner's eyes.

"Squints had a niece who lived with her. Her niece lived with her because both of her parents had died in a car accident. Sarah was next of kin. Anyway, this creep got his hands on Squints' niece and...." she watched his face fall. This time it was his turn to be vulnerable.

"Bones, I was too late."

Her sigh was a mix of relief and sadness.

"Booth," she cooed gently, "I'm sure it wasn't your fault."

"I know." he sounded worn out.

She placed a hand on his arm, "Bye Booth."

"Bye Bones. See you tommorow?" He asked, wondering if she'd be back to visit him.

"Of course."


End file.
